A haute couture art gallery

The $143 million Fondation Louis Vuitton, which will open to the public on Monday 27 October 2014, was commissioned by Bernard Arnault, the chairman and C.E.O. of the luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton, as a contemporary-art museum and cultural center.

The museum will exhibit, encourage and promote the artistic and creative movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. The 11 gallery sections will house a corporate collection – featuring works by Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, and others – and will be used for the presentation of multi-disciplinary performances as well as for LVMH fashion shows. However, it is Gehry’s architetural coup showcased in the Bois de Boulogne which is the subject of admiration. By creating a glass tribute to his Guggenheim Bilbao, the 85 year old Gehry continues to push himself relentlessly forward, as Picasso and Wright did late in their careers; ergo the museum’s opening is timed to coincide with the first European retrospective of Frank Gehry’s work at the Centre Pompidou.

Read more in The Art of Living printed edition