François Pinault


François Pinault is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment company Artémis.
Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. Taken public in 1988, the company invested in specialized retail business and changed its name to PPR. By the end of 1999, PPR shifted towards luxury and fashion. In 2003, he passed on the management of his companies to his elder son François-Henri to follow his passion for contemporary art.
Pinault is one of the world's leading contemporary art collectors.

Biography

Early life

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.
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 where the upper-class children teased him because of his rural accent and his peasant family. In 1956, he enlisted in the military during the Algerian war. Afterwards, he returned to the family business, which he sold following his father's death.
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.

Business empire

With the help of family and a bank loan from the Crédit Lyonnais, Pinault started his first business in 1963 as a wood-trading company. The business grew strongly. His group bought several companies facing bankruptcy, in particular Chapelle Darblay, and relaunched them.
On October 25, 1988, Pinault SA was taken public in the Paris stock exchange. Pinault started to change the direction of its investments to retail companies. He bought a majority stake in CFAO, Conforama, Printemps, La Redoute, and Fnac. His company was renamed Pinault-Printemps-Redoute in 1993.
By the end of century, Pinault started to shift his group towards the luxury industry. In March 1999, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute purchased a controlling 42% stake of the Gucci Group for $3 billion, and bought the Yves Saint Laurent company. Pinault then purchased the French jewelry company Boucheron in 2000, Balenciaga in 2001, and the British fashion house Alexander McQueen.
In May 2003, Pinault handed over the management of his companies to his son François-Henri. François-Henri Pinault became Chairman of PPR, and continued consolidating the luxury business with new brand acquisitions. In 2013, PPR changed its name to Kering. In 2018, the group's sales reached 13.66 billion euros, up 26.3% over the previous year.

Groupe Artémis

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 through its subsidiary Artémis Domaine the French vineyard Château Latour, the Clos de Tart, the Domaine d'Eugénie, Château Grillet, Eisele Vineyard. Among other investments, Artémis bought the news magazine Le Point in 1997, the auction house Christie's in 1998, and the luxury cruise company Ponant in 2015.
Pinault is also the owner of the Rennes football club since 1998.

Contemporary art collection

Pinault bought his first significant painting, Cour de ferme by Paul Sérusier, in 1980. He collected art of the 20th century before following contemporary art and artists. In 2019, the collection counts around 5,000 works.

Museums

In the early 2000s, Pinault had planned to develop a major contemporary art museum on the Île Seguin to house his collection. He assigned the Japanese architect Tadao Ando to design the building. After endless administrative delays, he cancelled the project in 2005.
The same year, he bought Palazzo Grassi SpA which operates the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Tadao Ando renovated the historical building. The Palazzo Grassi housed the first exhibition of Pinault Collection in 2006. 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 spaces in Venice. Tadao Ando restored the historical site, which reopened to the public in June 2009. In 2013, Pinault achieved the third chapter of his cultural project in Venice with the renovation and transformation of the Teatrino, an open-air theatre in ruins. Conceived by Tadao Ando, the new Teatrino holds a 225-seat auditorium.
In 2016, Pinault and the city of Paris announced their plan to turn the Bourse de commerce in the center of Paris into a new, Pinault Collection-branded, contemporary art museum. The architect Tadao Ando was put in charge of transforming the historic building. The opening was announced for the spring of 2020.

Off-site exhibitions

In addition to the exhibitions organized in its own museums, Pinault Collection organizes off-site exhibitions in France and around the globe, especially with institutional partners. The Pinault Collection has been shown in:
In 2015, in memory of his friend the writer Pierre Daix who passed away in 2014, Pinault created the Pierre Daix Prize to reward an outstanding book on modern and contemporary art every year.
In 2014, Pinault launched through the Pinault Collection an artist residency program in Lens. A former rectory was acquired and renovated by the NeM architecture agency. The artist residence opened in 2015. The American artists Melissa Dubbin and Aaron Davidson were the first artists selected for this program. The Belgian artist Edith Dekundt was in residency for 2016/2017, followed by the Brazilian artist Luca Arrada and Hicham Berrada. The artists are selected by Pinault Collection in collaboration with Louvre-Lens, FRAC Nord Pas de Calais, and Le Fresnoy art school.

Other commitments

In 1990, following a fire in the Paimpont forest in Brittany, Pinault immediately financed the reforestation project. In 2000, he provided a significant financial assistance to help the islands in Brittany affected by the oil spill following the sinking of the Erika.
In 2018, Pinault made a significant contribution to the restoration of Victor Hugo's house, the Hauteville House, in Guernsey.
After the Notre Dame de Paris fire of 15 April 2019, the Pinault family pledged 100 million euros as a donation to the reconstruction works and repairs of the cathedral.

Wealth

As of July 24, 2020, according to Forbes, François Pinault had a net worth estimated at $38.7 billion, making him the 27th-richest person in the world, and the 3rd-richest in France.

Awards