The French billionaire collector François Pinault’s long awaited new gallery housed at the Bourse de Commerce (stock exchange) building near the Louvre will open mid June next year. The new contemporary art museum, which will house works amassed over the past 40 years by Pinault, has been transformed by Tadao Ando, the Japanese architect who designed the collector's two Venetian galleries (Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana). The cost of the refurbishment is $170m.
Ando has installed a nine-metre high concrete cylinder in the main rotunda, which encircles the central exhibition space on the ground floor. Visitors can access a walkway on the first floor around the top of the cylindrical structure, which leads to another gallery and workshop area. Seven galleries in total will occupy sections of the building (the total exhibition area is 2,700 sq. m).
The sweeping circular painting covering the building dome, spanning 360 degrees, has also been restored as part of the project. The panorama is the work of five artists, including Évariste-Vital Luminais. Martin Bethenod, the managing director of the Bourse de Commerce, says the exhibition programme has yet to be announced.
