The Pinault Collection stands as one of the most prominent contemporary art collections in the world today. Founded and curated by French businessman François Pinault, this vast cultural endeavor is managed by the legal entity of the same name. It oversees the Pinault family’s artistic assets, its major exhibition venues, and a wide-ranging program of cultural partnerships, international loans, and artist residencies.

A Collector’s Journey

Over the past fifty years, François Pinault has assembled a collection defined not only by its scale—encompassing thousands of works from the late 20th century to the present—but also by its discerning curatorial sensibility. Pinault’s gaze has consistently favored boldness, experimentation, and emotional resonance. His collecting is deeply personal, shaped by long-standing relationships with artists and a philosophical commitment to art as a mirror of contemporary society.

From Venice to Paris: A Cultural Network

Until recently, the two principal sites for the Pinault Collection were in Venice: Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana. Since 2006, these historic buildings, redesigned by architect Tadao Ando, have hosted a rotation of ambitious exhibitions drawn from the collection.

In April 2016, Pinault took a decisive step toward establishing a permanent presence in Paris, announcing, together with the Council of Paris, the transformation of the Bourse de Commerce into a major new contemporary art museum. This 18th-century circular landmark, located near Les Halles, underwent a radical yet respectful architectural metamorphosis.

Bourse de Commerce – A Parisian Flagship

The Paris museum opened on 22 May 2021 after a renovation project exceeding €100 million. Once again, Tadao Ando led the design, this time in collaboration with Pierre-Antoine Gatier, the NeM agency (Lucy Niney and Thibault Marca), and Setec Bâtiment. At the center of the building lies a dramatic architectural intervention: a 30-foot-high, 100-foot-wide concrete cylinder beneath the original dome, which functions as a monumental central exhibition space—described as a “building within a building.”

The museum encompasses over 32,000 square feet of modular exhibition space and includes a restaurant and social areas on the upper floors. French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec curated both the interior and exterior furnishings, aligning design with the museum’s contemporary aesthetic.

The Bourse de Commerce presents around ten exhibitions annually, often featuring major works from the collection in conversation with the space’s architecture or responding to pressing social themes. The museum also facilitates art loans to global institutions and maintains partnerships across the French and international cultural landscape.

Current Exhibitions: The Human Form and Sensory Experience

Among the most significant ongoing exhibitions is “Corps et Âmes”, open until 25 August 2025, which gathers nearly one hundred works exploring the representation of the human body in contemporary art. It reveals the diversity of the Pinault Collection’s holdings—from figurative explorations to more conceptual meditations on physicality and identity.

The Bourse de Commerce is drawing some one hundred works from the Pinault Collection to present the exhibition „Corps et âmes“, an exploration of the representation of the body in contemporary art. From Auguste Rodin to Duane Hanson, Georg Baselitz to Ana Mendieta, David Hammons to Marlene Dumas, and Arthur Jafa to Ali Cherri, some forty artists have used painting, sculpture, photography, video, and drawing to explore the connections between body and soul.

Additionally, from 5 June 2025, the museum’s Rotunda features a major installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot titled “clinamen.” Known for his sound-based environments, Boursier-Mougenot blends sculpture, music, and architecture into a singular multisensorial experience. Originally a composer, he constructs systems using unconventional materials and objects that produce music in real time, transforming the exhibition space into a living acoustic landscape.

This immersive project transforms the Rotunda into reverie space in which a basin 18 meters in diameter filled with water reflects the sky seen through the museum’s dome. White ceramic bowls float across this blue surface, generating melodious, enchanting sounds as a light current pushes them along. These acoustic vibrations, free of any intervention by a performer, constitute the very heart of the piece, a veritable symphony of the moment that evolves with a flow of invisible waves.

A Living, Evolving Cultural Force

The Pinault Collection, through its institutions in Paris and Venice, continues to redefine what a private art collection can be in the public sphere. It bridges architecture and visual art, past and present, and personal vision with public dialogue. For François Pinault, the act of collecting has never been about ownership, but about sharing a vision of art that questions, challenges, and inspires. Through its ongoing exhibitions, collaborations, and cultural programs, the Pinault Collection remains a dynamic force in the global art world.