Venice: Palazzo Grassi In 2005, François Pinault bought the
Palazzo Grassi from the
Fiat Group. This Venetian complex is composed of two distinct buildings, a historical palazzo built along the
Grand Canal during the 18th century, and an old theater in ruins, the Teatrino. In 2006, Japanese architect and Pritzker Prize laureate
Tadao Ando was commissioned with the Palazzo's renovation. That same year, the new Palazzo Grassi was inaugurated with an exhibition of artwork from the Pinault Collection.
Venice: Punta della Dogana A year after the Palazzo Grassi opening, the
Venice city council organized a competition to convert the 16th century custom house
Punta della Dogana into a contemporary art museum. François Pinault won the competition over the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Pinault enlisted Tadao Ando once again for renovations, as the building had been abandoned for over 30 years. The new museum boasts a 54,000 square feet exhibition area and was inaugurated in 2009.
Venice: Teatrino Following the Palazzo Grassi (2006), and Punta della Dogana (2009) restorations, Pinault's cultural project for Venice continued with the rehabilitation of the Palazzo Grassi's Teatrino. Completed in 2013 and led by Tadao Ando, the project included a new auditorium of 200+ seats. The Teatrino had been closed to the public since 1983.
Paris: Bourse de Commerce In April 2016, François Pinault and the
Council of Paris announced plans to convert the city's landmark building
Bourse de Commerce into a contemporary art museum. The renovation project reportedly cost over 100 million euros. The museum would host around 10 exhibitions per year. According to François Pinault, the new museum would work in coordination with its Venetian sister museums. Collaborations with other Parisian art institutions were also planned. François Pinault entrusted Tadao Ando again for this renovation. He teamed up with Pierre-Antoine Gatier (architect-in-chief of the French National Heritage), as well as Lucy Niney and Thibault Marca of NeM agency, and Setec Bâtiment for the engineering of the project. The façades, the roof and the circular painting in the building's dome were rehabilitated. A 30-feet high and 100-feet in diameter concrete cylinder built beneath the central cupola serves as the main exhibition gallery, a "building within a building". The French designers
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec were entrusted with the museum's interior and exterior furnishings. The museum opened on 22 May 2021. ==Exhibitions==