Bernard Arnault

LVMH Chief Bernard Arnault Is France's Richest Man

Filed under: Wealth

Bernard Arnault, the founder, chairman, and CEO of LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate which includes Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Dom Pérignon, Hublot and more, has been named France's richest man in a new ranking by business magazine Challenges, following a 55% increase in his net worth.

Arnault's fortune is estimated at $28.6 billion, exclusive of personal property holdings including works of art, cars, boats and planes. Arnault bested last year's winner, Auchan supermarket owner Gérard Mulliez, for the top spot, while Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oreal heiress and one of the world's richest women, came in third and enjoyed a 40% rise in net worth in the past year to $18 billion.

Tags: Bernard Arnault, billionaire, Dior, Dom Pérignon, France, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, LVMH

Art Collectors Watching, Waiting (and maybe Buying) at FIAC

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Collectors are looking and thinking. They might take action, but it's still too soon to tell. The action at Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris is deliberate: nobody's rushing to put their cash on the table. However, there are signs that some pricey and prestigious pieces may sell.

Last week, a painting by Piet Mondrian was put on reserve, at a price between $30 million and $40 million. One of Pablo Picasso's works was reserved, as well, at $24 million. Back in the art boom, these pieces would have been snapped up already, but dealers are saying that it's taking longer to complete sales at FIAC this year than last year. Even billionaires need convincing in this market, it seems.

Also, there's a greater desire to stay under the radar. Whether it's to maintain some privacy or hide the fact that they have the means to spend more than they like, some owners and buyers are turning to private sales. Bargains, thus, won't make it into the public record – sparing sellers the embarrassment and preventing the other holdings of all collectors from sustaining a measurable decline in value. If premiums are paid, buyers won't have to reveal that they have the cash to pay more, preventing prices from increasing broadly.

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Paris Follows London with Art Fair

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

The big money's in Paris this season. Last night, a $24 million painting by Pablo Picasso of his mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, was put on reserve at the VIP preview of the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain. The FIAC is France's largest art fair, and it follows the Frieze Art Fair in London. The French fair hopes to capitalize on Frieze's momentum, where dealers indicated that sales were up from 2008.

Picasso isn't the only major artist whose work is up for sale at a major price. L+M Arts, from New York, has put Francis Bacon's "Portrait of George Dyer Takling," which is being priced at approximately $40 million, and Fernand Leger's "Le Grand Dejeurner" is being shown by Daniel Malingue for $20 million to $25 million. The fair is already well attended, with Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH, and his ilk already in attendance.

FIAC ends on October 25, 2009 and has more than 200 modern and contemporary art dealers showcasing the work they represent. Most of the exhibits are in the Grand Palais, with another 80 by younger living artists displayed in a temporary structure in the Cour Carree of the Louvre. The art market slump has led to smaller numbers this year, with 40 galleries that participated last year not returning to Paris this year.

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Tags: art, art market, ArtMarket, artwork, bernard arnault, BernardArnault, fiac, francis bacon, FrancisBacon, grand palais, GrandPalais, louvre, pablo picasso, PabloPicasso, picasso

Gagosian in Talks to Open Paris Art Gallery

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

The time to grow is when the market is suffering. This must be in the back of the mind of art market guru Larry Gagosian, who has been involved with such heavy-hitter artists as Damien Hirst and Richard Prince. While there are small signs of a recovery, much is still uncertain. However, this hasn't stopped Gagosian from making a bold move: opening a branch of the Gagosian Gallery in Paris.

Bloomberg News reports that Gagosian is in talks to pick up space in the 8th arrondissement, near la rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Nobody from the Gagosian camp has commented so far.

There are plenty of deep-pocketed art collectors in Paris, including Francois and Bernard Arnault, and the French market hasn't suffered as severely as those in London and New York. That said, Paris is the smallest of the western troika, but with a presence in the two largest markets already, the French capital was the next logical step.

Waring Hopkins, director of modern art specialist Hopkins-Custot – which is located in what is likely to become Gagosian's back yard – observed to Bloomberg, "Gagosian would instantly become one of the most important dealers in Paris," and that setting up shop in Paris "would be good for Gagosian and it would be good for the city."

The market itself is only part of what makes the expansion shrewd. Gagosian can use the space in Paris to show works from contemporary artists represented by competing galleries in New York and London.

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LVMH Profits Slip

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

LVHM released their most recent numbers on Monday, a little ahead of schedule, showing that first-half net profit for the luxury good retailer fell 23 percent. LVMH products span a wide range in the luxury market and different groups within the company have had differing results. Watches and jewelry were particularly hard hit reporting that profit from recurring operations fell 73 percent. Better but still slumping was the wine and spirits division with a 41 percent slip. Fashion and leather goods were a bright spot with a seven percent increase in profit from recurring operations.

LVMH posted a net profit of 687 million euros in the six months through June, which is down from 891 million euros a year earlier. As you might expect the economy has been cited as a reason for the decline but the company also said that heavy destocking by its third-party distributors in the wine and spirits and jewelry and watches businesses played a role in the decline.

The company predicts that it will continue to gain market share even in a shrinking market. Businessweek has a quote from Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, shown at right who said that the results were "particularly remarkable given the global economic crisis" and that LVMH is approaching the second half of the year "with confidence."

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Tags: bernard arnault, BernardArnault, lvmh, profits, stocks

LVMH Chief Plans $140 Million Art Museum

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Bernard Arnault (right), the billionaire chairman of Louis Vuitton parent LVMH and France's richest man, plans to open a $140 million art museum in Paris within the next 2-3 years despite the grim economic forecast. "It's a way of showing that luxury, which often has an arrogant, elitist, egotistical image, can be generous," Arnault's arts advisor Jean-Paul Claverie tells Bloomberg.

Dubbed the Louis Vuitton Foundation and designed by Frank Gehry, the luxury goods kingpin has high hopes for the museum in Paris's Bois de Boulogne on the site of a former bowling alley, which will display LVMH's extensive art collection. "Mr. Arnault often says that as many people will visit the building as will go see the Eiffel tower,'' Claverie says.

Tags: bernard arnault, BernardArnault, France, Frank Gehry, FrankGehry, Louis Vuitton, LouisVuitton, LVMH, Museum, Paris

Esquire Names Abramovich One of Century's Most Influential

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Esquire magazine has just named Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich one of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century. The honor comes on the heels of the lovably profligate oligarch's advancement to 8th place on Vanity Fair's list of the world's 100 most powerful people, as we reported earlier this month.

The magazine cites Abramovich's rise from hawking rubber duckies at Moscow's open-air markets to a multi-billionaire oil kingpin, art collector extraordinaire, megayacht owner, Putin confidant, and so on.

Also landing slots on Esquire's list, which appears in the October issue and is not ranked, are Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, ruler of Dubai and one of the world's richest royals; luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH; and provocative artist Jeff Koons, whose work sells for millions.

Tags: bernard arnault, BernardArnault, Dubai, Esquire magazine, EsquireMagazine, Jeff Koons, JeffKoons, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires

LVMH Chief and Russia's Richest Man Want to Make Montenegro the Next Monaco

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

A group of billionaire investors including Oleg Deripaska (Russia's richest man) and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault are backing a scheme to turn Tivat, a derelict port and ex-Yugoslav naval base in the former communist country of Montenegro, into the next playground for the megarich. The site's former naval dockyard fronting the Adriatic Sea will be converted into a lavish marina for superyachts, officially dubbed Porto Montenegro and biiled as "the Monaco of the Balkans," at a cost of around $350 million, the Times of London reports.

"The yachts are getting bigger and bigger," says Canadian mining magnate Peter Munk, who conceived of the project. "And people are complaining that they can't find proper berths for their boats. That's no problem in Tivat. It used to cater to warships." In addition to the great natural beauty of Montenegro, the development will feature moorings for up to 800 yachts as well as repair yards, hotels, restaurants, shops and possibly a casino. In addition, the Four Seasons is building its first Mediterranean resort there on the site of a former warehouse, slated to open in 2010.

Meanwhile, another oligarch, Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich, is said to be in talks to purchase an eight-mile strip of beach to build his own Montenegrin luxury resort, while Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Venus and Serena Williams have recently been spotted house-hunting in the area, the paper reports. This is something of a throwback to the 1950s and 1960s, when stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Kirk Douglas holidayed on Montenegro's beautiful red-tiled resort island of Sveti Stefan (above). See the gallery for more.

Gallery: Magnificent Montenegro

Tags: bernard arnault, BernardArnault, catherine zeta-jones, CatherineZeta-jones, Four Seasons, FourSeasons, LVMH, mediterranean, Michael Douglas, MichaelDouglas, Monaco, Montenegro, oleg deripaska, OlegDeripaska, Peter Munk, PeterMunk, Porto Montenegro, PortoMontenegro, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, Sophia Loren, SophiaLoren, Sveti Stefan, SvetiStefan, Tivat, Yacht

Richard Prince Opens First Major UK Solo Show

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Artist, bibliophile, collector and Louis Vuitton collaborator Richard Prince's first major solo show at a UK public institution opens in London at the Serpentine Gallery on Thursday. Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs threw a posh pre-opening party for the artist. Running through Sept. 7, the exhibition, called Continuation, picks up where Prince's major Guggenheim retrospective of last year left off. The Serpentine show however will "mirror the installation of Prince's work in his own buildings," especially his compound in upstate New York, complete with studio furniture. Also on display will be his sculptures in the form of muscle car hoods, flip-flops and concrete highway barriers. Last month, a painting from Prince's Nurse series similar to the one pictured here from the new show sold at Christie's for $7 million, while LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault cited the Vuitton bags Prince designed as one of the company's prime profit makers.

[via Men.Style]

Gallery: Richard Prince at the Serpentine

Covering Hannah (1987 Grand National) 2008

Tags: Bernard A, bernard arnault, BernardA, BernardArnault, London, Louis Vuitton, LouisVuitton, LVMH, Richard Prince, RichardPrince, Serpentine Gallery, SerpentineGallery

LVMH Chief Bullish on Luxury Brands

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Handbags, Cosmetics and Fragrance

Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods monolith LVMH, says that despite dire economic predictions and reports of a falloff in parts of the luxury sector the company expects profits to actually improve in 2008. "We are in a position to meet our objectives for a sharp rise in earnings in 2008," Arnault just announced at LVMH's annual shareholders meeting, according to Women's Wear Daily. "Every time we've been [in a difficult economy] we've increased market share. We've started the year strong. We will not pull off [of the accelerator]. We are focused on innovating."

Arnault, whose company recently added Swiss watchmaker Hublot to its portfolio of luxury brands, singled out handbags as a strong earner. "There are tons of new leather goods," he declared. "The Richard Prince bag for Vuitton" - one of our Handbags of the Day -- "has been an immense success and we won't be able to meet demand," Arnault said. "We can't produce the pieces fast enough." He also predicted strong sales this year for Fendi, calling it "one of the most important Italian brands on the market," and Dior as well -- no doubt thanks to Charlize Theron's captivating fragrance ads (above).

Gallery: LVMH Luxury Portfolio