Tycoons at it again: This time, rivalry is over famed cathedral
PARIS — Two of France’s richest men, long locked in a public rivalry, are once again pitted against each other — this time over competing donations to rebuild Notre Dame.
Billionaire tycoons Bernard Arnault, 70, and Francois Pinault, 82, are among France’s fiercest business competitors and patrons.
On Tuesday, their rivalry reached dramatic heights when it was announced Pinault, his son and their company Artemis would donate $113 million to help finance renovations to Notre Dame after it was damaged in an inferno.
Hours later, Arnault announced that he, his family and his luxury company LVMH would pledge $226 million for the restoration of the church, which was immortalized in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” — an eternal story of obsession and jealousy.
The rivalry of Arnault and Pinault, whose names rhyme, goes back decades.
“They’re like competing boys, but the stakes run into the billions,” said Long Nguyen, fashion editor at Flaunt magazine.
Arnault is France’s — and Europe’s — richest man and CEO of the world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH, the owner of iconic fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Pinault founded the world’s second-biggest, Kering, formerly PPR, that acquired rival brand Saint Laurent in a face-off.
Both tycoons also possess a sizable art collection — and a desire to show it off in competing museums.
Pinault’s son Francois Henri married actress Salma Hayek and is often in the society pages, while Arnault’s son Antoine fathered children to supermodel Natalia Vodianova.
The two were reportedly on friendly business terms until the late 1990s. Some commentators have linked the souring of pair’s relations to a bidding battle over the ownership of Italian fashion house Gucci, which went to Pinault’s Kering group.
Then, the battling turned to art.
Arnault opened the Louis Vuitton Foundation, designed by architect Frank Gehry, in 2014 to showcase his vast personal art trove in Paris’ far western suburbs. French media claiming the building’s final price tag came in at close to $900 million.
Meanwhile Pinault, who with his son is estimated to represent France’s sixth fortune, is is set to open his multimillion-dollar contemporary art museum, the Collection Pinault-Paris, next spring. It is designed by architect Tadao Ando.