François Pinault

François Pinault was born on 21 August 1936 in Les Champs-Géraux, a commune in the north of Brittany in the west of France. His father was a timber trader.[2]

Pinault grew up in the rural French countryside, beginning his career working for his family's timber business. He dropped out of school at the age of 16 from the College Saint-Martin in Rennes.[3] In 1956, he enlisted in the military during the Algerian war.[4] Afterwards, he returned to the family business, which he sold following his father's death.[5]

In 1962, he married Louise Gautier. They had three children: François-Henri, Dominique, and Laurence Pinault. The couple divorced five years later, and in 1970, Pinault married Maryvonne Campbell, an antique trader in Rennes who introduced him to the world of art. His first art purchases date back to this period.[3]

François Pinault started his first business in 1963 as a wood-trading company. Pinault SA grew strongly and diversified its portfolio by acquiring several companies facing bankruptcy, including Chapelle Darblay, to restructure them.[4][6] On 25 October 1988, Pinault SA was taken public in the Paris stock exchange and started to invest in specialty store chains. He acquired a majority stake in CFAO (specialized distribution in Africa), Conforama (furnishing retailer), Printemps (department store), La Redoute (mail order), and Fnac (books and electronics retailer). Pinault SA was renamed Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) in 1993.[7]

In 1992, Pinault set up the holding company Artémis to manage the Pinault family's investments. Controlled 100% by Pinault and his family, Artémis controls the vineyards Château Latour (Bordeaux),[8] Clos de Tart (Bourgogne), Domaine d'Eugénie (Vosne-Romanée), Château Grillet (Rhône Valley), Eisele Vineyard (Napa Valley), and the champagne Jacquesson.[9] Artémis bought the news magazine Le Point in 1997, the auction house Christie's in 1998,[6][10] and the luxury cruise company Ponant in 2015.[11] Pinault has been the owner of the Rennes football club since 1998.[12] In September 2023, Artémis acquired 53% of Creative Artists Agency for $7 billion.[13]

François Pinault and his son François-Henri in 2016.

By the end of the 1990s, François Pinault started to shift his business focus from retail to luxury. In March 1999, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute purchased a controlling 42% stake of the Gucci Group for $3 billion,[14] and bought the Yves Saint Laurent company.[15] Pinault then purchased the French jewelry company Boucheron in 2000, Balenciaga in 2001, and the British fashion house Alexander McQueen.[14] In May 2003, he handed over the management of his companies to his son François-Henri[7] who pursued the consolidation of the luxury group with new acquisitions (Brioni, Girard-Perregaux, Pomellato...)[3] and changed the group's name to Kering in 2013.[16]

Pinault bought his first significant painting, Cour de ferme by Paul Sérusier, in 1980.[3] He collected art of the 20th century (Mondrian, Picasso, Man Ray, ...) before following contemporary artists (David Hammons, Rudolf Stingel, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Subodh Gupta, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, ...).[17] In 2023, his art collection contained approximately 10,000 works.[18]

In 2005, François Pinault bought the company Palazzo Grassi SpA which operated the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. The Japanese architect Tadao Ando renovated the historical building which housed the first exhibition of Pinault Collection in 2006.[5] One year later, the Venice city council awarded the tender of the Punta della Dogana, which had been abandoned for 30 years, to Pinault Collection, adding 5,000 m² to the Palazzo Grassi space in Venice.[19] Tadao Ando also restored this historical site, which reopened to the public in June 2009.[20] In 2013, Pinault achieved the third chapter of his cultural project in Venice with the renovation and transformation of the Teatrino, an open-air theater in ruins. Designed once again by Tadao Ando, the new Teatrino holds a 225-seat auditorium.[21]

In 2016, Pinault and the city of Paris announced their plan to turn the Bourse de commerce in the center of Paris (1st arrondissement) into a new, Pinault Collection-branded contemporary art museum.[22] Tadao Ando was put in charge of transforming the historic building. The museum opened in May 2021.[23]

• 
  Palazzo Grassi, Venice.
• 
  Punta della Dogana, Venice.
• 
  Bourse de commerce, Paris.

In 2014, François Pinault launched, through the Pinault Collection, an artist residency program in Lens (Northern France) which opened in 2015.[24][25] In 2015, in memory of his friend the writer (and Picasso biographer) Pierre Daix who died in 2014, Pinault created the Pierre Daix Prize to reward an outstanding book on modern and contemporary art every year.[26]

As of 31 July 2023, according to Forbes, Pinault had a net worth estimated at $34.8 billion.[36]

As of September 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Pinault's wealth was estimated at US$39.1 billion, making him the 32nd richest person in the world.[37]

• 1958: Military Value Cross
• 2006: Breton of the Year by Armor Magazine
• 2006, 2007: Most influential personality in the art world by ArtReview[38]
• 2011: Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur[39]
• 2016: Grand Officer of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia[40]
• 2017: Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur[41]

• Bothorel, Jean (2003). François Pinault : une enfance bretonne. Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 9782221097472. OCLC 56405699.
• Dal Co, Francesco (2009). Tadao Ando for François Pinault: From Ile Seguin to Punta Della Dogana. Mondadori Electa. ISBN 8837069456.
• Anfam, David (2006). Where Are We Going?: Selections from the Francois Pinault Collection. Skira. ISBN 8876247564.

• Ranking on ArtReview Power List