"Bourse de Commerce" in Paris: Pinault's Art Collection of Superlatives
A “new epicentre of art and culture” is what the professional media are talking about when they speak of the long-awaited and undoubtedly most relevant museum project of recent years. There is no question - the art world is collectively looking to Paris! What is currently being built there at the corner of Rue du Louvre and Rue de Viarmes is nothing like a conventional museum building: Businessman François Pinault has chosen the historic halls of the “Bourse de Commerce” as the latest exhibition space for his spectacular collection. The new building will therefore be no less impressive, and the key data of the monumental project seem like a list of superlatives: 10,500 square metres of space in the heart of Paris will be home to ten museum wings and an auditorium with 284 seats. The rich history of the building confronts the team of architects led by the Japanese architect and Pritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando with a number of challenges. Originally built as a private residence for Catherine de Medici, the façade alone shows numerous additions from past eras - the metal and glass dome that has crowned the building since 1812 is particularly noteworthy. Incidentally, the building was only given its namesake purpose from 1889 until 1998.
Harmony of the epochs
“The idea was to revitalise a historical site: to pay homage to the memory and at the same time to introduce a different structure inspired by the interlocking Russian dolls, a composition that establishes a lively dialogue between the new and the old and creates a space full of life, as befits a place dedicated to contemporary art,” says Ando, who delicately combines the historical and the contemporary. The allusion to the Russian matryoshkas suggests that monument protection and due respect for his predecessors (after all, from Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières to François-Joseph Bélanger and Henri Blondel, countless world-famous architects have left their mark) impose a corset on the vision that can only be loosened by creative approaches. The centrepiece of the complex is a 29-metre-diameter concrete cylinder that is divided into five levels and encompasses a large part of the exhibition space. Given the intricacies and sophistication, it is not surprising that the costs of the conversion work are also astronomical - a reported 170 millions are said to have gone into the “Bourse de Commerce” project. In addition to the two museums in Venice - the “Palazzo Grassi”, acquired by the Fiat Group in 2005, and the “Punta della Dogana”, which won out over the “Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation” and opened in 2009 - this is already the third addition and undoubtedly the showpiece, which will now make the contemporary collection accessible to the public in changing exhibitions.
The man behind the monument
The name itself suggests that monetary means are likely to play a rather subordinate role. At the beginning of the year, the business magazine Forbes estimated the fortune of 84-year-old businessman François Pinault and his family at around 45 billion dollars. While building materials were still the core business of the group of companies founded in 1963, today, under the leadership of Pinault’s son, François-Henri Pinault, the company is one of the market leaders in the luxury segment and can point to brands such as Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent in its portfolio. The company also graces Christie’s auction house, leading seamlessly to the Frenchman’s passion: art!
“Only a madman like me could decide to buy (contemporary art, editor’s note) so quickly”, Pinault Senior admitted in one of his rare interviews, and is gladly courted by the media as a “mega-collector” because of his buying power. The collection comprises at least 5,000 works (estimates vary and sometimes go as high as 10,000), including works by Louise Bourgeois, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Urs Fischer and Cindy Sherman - in short: blue-chip works of the top league that are acquired on a grand scale. It is hardly surprising that Pinault thus regularly ranks among the top 10 most important art collectors; after all, the total value of the works in his possession is estimated at around 29 billion dollars. Which of these will be displayed in Paris is currently still a well-guarded secret that will only be revealed at the opening (postponed to spring/summer 2021 due to Covid 19 restrictions). One thing is certain: following the example of the two houses in Venice, the Bourse de Commerce will not have permanent exhibitions in Paris either, but the space will be used for constantly changing programmes. Although cooperation with the Centre Pompidou is also planned, the size of the collection suggests that there will probably be enough material for decades even without any cooperation with other museums.
Monuments for eternity
“With the founding of this new museum, I am opening the next chapter of my cultural project,” says Pinault, whose declared goal is to share his passion for contemporary art with as broad an audience as possible. In this respect, he finds himself in the best of the company - the beautiful and (successful) rich have historically always liked to adorn themselves and their residences with art, and among the fashion and beauty dynasties, collecting has almost become a matter of good manners. Just think of the foundations of the Lauder, Maramotti (owner of Max Mara, editor’s note), or Bernard Arnault families. Pinault and his collection are often put in competition with Arnault - after all, the latter had already immortalized himself in the cityscape of Paris in 2014 with the opening of the “Fondation Louis Vuitton”. Another important motivating factor behind the cultural commitment seems to be the legacy of posterity. Collectors such as Getty, Guggenheim, or Beyerle have thus gone down in history and linked their names with art for eternity. An elite list in which Pinault may also consider himself to be in the top echelon, at the latest after the opening of the “Bourse de Commerce”.
