Fondation Louis Vuitton

The Fondation Louis Vuitton is a private art museum and cultural centre in Frank Gehry's glass-sailed building at 8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, on the northern edge of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris's 16th arrondissement. It shows modern and contemporary art and major international exhibitions, and suits art lovers and architecture fans who book ahead.

The LVMH luxury group created the foundation as a home for its art collection and cultural programme. It was inaugurated on 20 October 2014 in the presence of President François Hollande and opened to the public a week later. It stands beside the Jardin d'Acclimatation.

Frank Gehry's glass sails

Gehry designed the building to suggest a ship under sail. Twelve sails made of about 3,600 curved laminated glass panels wrap around a core of white volumes with terraces, nicknamed the iceberg. The panels were shaped with digital design software developed by Gehry's own technology company. A grotto with a water cascade runs along the base.

The roof terraces, set between the sails, give wide views over the Bois de Boulogne towards La Défense and central Paris, and they are worth time of their own.

Eleven galleries and changing exhibitions

Eleven galleries of different sizes on several levels hold works from the foundation's collection and temporary exhibitions, which often include major loans from other museums and private collections. The programme changes several times a year, and large retrospectives draw big crowds, so what you see depends on the season. A 350-seat auditorium hosts concerts and talks.

Bernard Arnault, LVMH and the 2011 permit case

Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, met Frank Gehry in 2001 and the group funds the foundation. The City of Paris owns the Bois de Boulogne land; after a court cancelled the building permit in 2011, a special law declared the project of national interest, and the building passes to the city after 55 years. The 11 galleries total about 3,850 square metres. Lang Lang gave the inaugural recital in the auditorium on 24 October 2014, and site-specific commissions include works by Ellsworth Kelly and Olafur Eliasson. Attendance reached a record of about 1.57 million in 2025.