Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, the long-awaited new home for the French megacollector’s holdings will finally open to the public in January 2021
The former grain and then stock exchange has been renovated by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who previously collaborated with the billionaire founder of luxury group Kering and owner of auction house Christie’s at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, as well as his previous, aborted, attempt to open a museum in Paris on the Île Seguin during the mid-2000s.
The current project, launched in 2017, was originally scheduled to open this year, but was postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bourse de Commerce is Pinault’s third and largest exhibition venue, joining the existing Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice. Pinault acquired a 50-year lease on the city-owned property at a cost of $15 million, reportedly spending $170 million on the project in total.
The new venue offers 3,000 square metres of exhibition space, a 300-seat auditorium and a black-box theatre, and is scheduled to open to the public on 23 January 2021. It will draw on both Pinault’s 5,000-work collection and star loans.
In a succinct press release announcing the opening, the Frenchman said: ‘I am delighted with the upcoming opening of the Bourse de Commerce. Not only will it add to the European landscape of institutions devoted to presenting contemporary art, but after the difficult year experienced by France and the world in 2020, it will contribute to the renaissance of the Parisian cultural sphere.’
