[ad_1]
Collector and Kering founder François Pinault has been trying to open a private museum in Paris for 20 years, and now it appears he will have to wait a bit longer. The opening of the French billionaire’s new private museum in Paris, an institution set in a former stock exchange known as the Bourse de Commerce, has been delayed due to the coronavirus crisis. The institution, which had been scheduled to welcome its first visitors in June, said it now plans to open in September.
An exact date for the opening has not yet been named. As of March 17, France had more than 7,700 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
The Bourse, for which Pinault has taken out a 50-year lease, is located in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital. The new museum was designed by Tadao Ando and its construction has been estimated to cost around $170 million. Martin Bethenod, who previously helmed the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana, Pinault’s private museums in Venice, Italy, began managing the development and opening of the Bourse in March.
[See a list of the major museums around the world that have closed because of the coronavirus.]
Pinault, whose collection includes works by Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, and Urs Fischer, made his fortune as a majority stakeholder in Christie’s auction house and as the founder of Kering, which owns luxury brands like Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, and others. He has appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list numerous times.
Art institutions across Europe have closed in response to the pandemic. In France, the Louvre, the Musée Delacroix, the Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie, and the Palais de Tokyo are among the major museums that have shuttered. Art Paris, a fair held annually at the city’s Grand Palais, has also been postponed until May 28.
Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana museums have also been forced to cease operations in the face of the virus.
[ad_2]
Source link