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Louis Vuitton unveils plans for new Paris contemporary art museum … International Herald Tribune, France - 22 hours ago AP. PARIS France’s richest man unveiled plans on Monday to build an ethereal, fully transparent museum designed by architect Frank Gehry that will house a … Gehry will design Paris museum calendarlive.com Gehry unveils design for new Paris museum CBC Toronto Architect offers Paris a touch of glass The Age Sydney Morning Herald - Reuters.uk all 49 news articlesPARIS France’s richest man unveiled plans on Monday to build an ethereal, fully transparent museum designed by architect Frank Gehry that will house a contemporary art collection in Paris. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of French luxury goods empire LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and the world’s 7th-richest person according to Forbes magazine, described the museum as “more of a cloud than a building.” The 4,200-square meter (45,200 sq. feet) museum, made mostly of glass and with numerous sharp angles, is expected to go up in the vast Bois de Boulogne park on Paris’ western edge between next year and 2010 — at a cost of some €100 million (US$126 million). Arnault and Gehry were joined by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe at LVMH headquarters to unveil a mock-up of the future Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation building, aimed to house 20th- and 21st-century art. “The idea of building a solid, strong and formal object appeared inappropriate to me in this green,” Gehry said. He said the structure features rooftop terraces that offer views of the park, uniting indoors with outdoors and the city with the sky. He praised the site and called the project a “heavenly assignment” because Paris is his “favorite city.” On show will be works by Picasso, Mark Rothko, Damien Hirst, Jean Dubuffet and others, but the building itself is likely to attract admirers of Gehry — designer of Spain’s Guggenheim Bilbao, considered by many to be his masterwork and one of the world’s great modern buildings. “My intuition tells me … that this will be your masterpiece,” said Delanoe, clearly hoping to fan speculation that the Paris building would surpass his achievement in Bilbao, Spain. The foundation, scheduled to open in 2010, underlines Arnault’s continuing effort in recent years to extend the LVMH brand beyond the runway and into the art world. Paris lost out on a similar project to Venice earlier this year when Arnault rival Francois Pinault, chairman of the PPR SA retailing empire that includes Gucci and Printemps brands, said he had had enough with French red tape — sparking widespread criticism of the government. Delanoe said he planned to present the project to the city before year-end, and expected full approval in time for groundbreaking next year. |