In a social media put up, Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and one in all Europe’s most influential artwork patrons and collectors, shot again at a scathing, six-part investigation by Le Monde delving into the scope of his energy, wealth, and alleged rivalries inside the Arnault clan, described as “the final royal household of France.” The report additionally devotes a chapter to Arnault’s engagement with the humanities, titled: “Bernard Arnault, the beneficiant patron, in love with the humanities and tax exemptions.”
In broad strokes, that art-devoted fifth out of six articles outlines how Arnault, 77, and the luxurious conglomerate he runs, LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, have benefited from vital tax breaks over time, due to huge, flashy spending on arts and tradition. As ARTnews has reported up to now, these embrace the founding of the influential Fondation Louis Vuitton (FLV), his non-public museum in Paris, in addition to the financing of artwork acquisitions on behalf of public French museums, to call just a few. Per Le Monde, these initiatives had been pushed by a calculated want to showcase his energy, seize advertising and marketing alternatives, and declare tax deductions.
“Regardless of the sincerity could also be for his style in artwork, Bernard Arnault by no means does something merely for the fantastic thing about the gesture. He desires his exhibitions [at FLV] to be probably the most luxurious and spectacular on this planet, like a show of his energy and energy… all with out shedding sight of the financial returns on his investments, and above all, the tax benefits to be gained from them,” reviews Le Monde. “If [Arnault] selected to create a basis to accommodate his museum, it was certainly with the concept of constructing the fullest potential use of obtainable tax break mechanisms.” French legislation permits companies to chop 60 p.c of taxes from sure types of monetary assist for the humanities, if thought of useful to the general public.
To those accusations, Arnault instantly responded on Sunday in an irony-filled put up on X, previously often called Twitter: “I did certainly fund the Louis Vuitton Basis beneath the framework voted into legislation by the French parliament in 2003, following a proposal from the Minister of Tradition. In different phrases: the legislation of the Republic invitations firms or people to donate in the direction of the general public curiosity; I gave, and that appears suspicious. If the mechanism is so offensive, then all that is still is to persuade lawmakers to repeal it. Within the meantime, I stand by it — nobody compelled me.”
The report additionally claims that in alternate for LVMH’s funding of main artwork acquisitions for French museums—akin to Gustave Caillebotte’s Boating Social gathering (1877–78) for the Musée d’Orsay or Jean Siméon Chardin’s 1761 nonetheless life Basket of Wild Strawberries for the Louvre—French establishments invited the LVMH manufacturers to lease their luxurious palaces and museums for vogue exhibits and “superb eating” soirées at “very advantageous charges.”
The report additionally notes one other legislation grants a 90-percent tax lower on donations towards state acquisitions of artworks listed as “nationwide treasures.” In consequence, by Le Monde’s calculation, the €43 million ($49 million) spent by LVMH on the Caillebotte portray solely price the corporate, after tax deductions, a paltry €4.3 million ($4.9 million).
In his prolonged response, Arnault additionally addresses the article’s declare that his household is embroiled in bitter succession disputes. His response, he wrote, would possibly draw additional consideration to the Le Monde investigation, however “not less than serves as one factor: to avoid wasting power for all those that, elsewhere, are betting on a rift inside a household to promote newspapers. They’ll be ready a very long time.”
