85 year-old French billionaire businessman François Pinault has a lot of modern art (over ten thousand items, it is said) and while some are on show in his Venice museum space, until now none could be seen in Paris.

All that has changed since May of last year – an amazing 18th century building in the centre of the city – la Bourse de Commerce – has been transformed to become a new museum for the Pinault Collection. It’s an incredible venue, and we were very eager to go take a look for you…

La Bourse de Commerce was originally a corn exchange before housing the Paris Chamber of Commerce for over a century. The astonishing circular building was classified an historic monument in 1986.

Thirty years later in 2016, the Paris city council announced that it was buying the (privately-owned) building for 86 million euros and leasing it to the Pinault Collection for 50 years. After five years of work (and over a year’s delay due to the pandemic), the new museum opened in May 2021 with 3.000m² of exhibition space, a basement auditorium and an expensive gastronomic restaurant on the top floor.

We went down during the day to have a look at the magnificent, freshly-cleaned stone facade in the sunlight…

… but our visit was booked for the weekly late-night opening (Fridays, until 9pm). The museum also has a free late night every first Saturday of the month from 5-9pm. Very handy if you’re in town and on a budgte.

Once inside, the space is immediately impressive, with original wooden display cases now housing pieces of contemporary art (some of it rather bizarre), a huge ceiling fresco dating from 1886, and of course the 9 metre-high concret wall that surrounds and delimits the central exhibition space (which was closed during our visit, in preparation for the installation of works by Charles Ray).

On the ground floor you’ll also find the first large gallery. For our visit, the art wasn’t really to our tastef…

Taking a short staircase downstairs leads us to the new auditorium, ready for the museum’s rich programme of performances, conferences, concerts and film showings.

Through a large glass divide in a neighbouring room you can see the machines that used to power the building’s heating system.

On the first floor, the gallery ceilings are lower but the views of the central space are even more spectacular than from below. It’s extremely impressive, and there’s nothing else like it in Paris.

And while many spaces in the building have been adapted to be used for exhibitions, other areas are pretty much completely preserved, or just slightly altered with a contemporary twist.

The double-helix staircase, for example, is gorgeous whether seen from on high or from below. You can use it to reach the Halle aux Grains, the smart restaurant on the top floor (perhaps you’ll be tempted by their fixed lunch menus costing 56€, 85€ or 98€) or to descend to the bookshop with a selection of art books and the unexpected star of the whole building, a little talking animatronic mouse (true story), one of the in situ works on offer.

At with that, our visit came to an end. We left with more memories of the architecture than the art perhaps (something that also happened when we went to the Fondation Vuitton). Nevertheless, if you find an exhibition from an artist you love, the experience will be undoubtedly be very special.

In addition to the museum’s exhibitions (often five at the same time), there are numerous workshops and a lot on offer in the auditorium… The full programme is here.

There’s also a special offer to encourage young visitors. Anyone from 18-26 years old can sign up for free to the Super Circle and get several advantages, like free entrance any day after 4pm, a reduced rate (7€) for temporary exhibitions, invites to events…

And whatever you think of the art from the Pinault Collection, a new cultural space in the city is something to celebrate. Paris really is the best place in the world for culture, so make the most of it with a stay in one of our hotels!

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The Bourse de Commerce, the Pinault Collection (here) is open Wednesday-Monday from 11am-7pm (9pm Fridays). Closed Tuesdays

Free late night opening for all on the first Saturday of the month from 5-9pm

Online ticket sales (obligatory) here

Admission: 14€ / 10€

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Une publication partagée par Bourse de Commerce (@boursedecommerce)