NATIONAL TREASURE: Less than three weeks after attending a press conference at the Elysée presidential palace to unveil a new prize for start-ups, luxury magnate Bernard Arnault has another appointment with French President François Hollande.
The two men, together with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay, have called a press conference in Paris on Wednesday to reveal what organizers are billing as “a cultural project for Paris of international scope.”
The event will be held at the Jardin d’acclimatation, a 20-hectare children’s amusement park located in the Bois de Boulogne next to the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the art museum and cultural center sponsored by Arnault’s luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Paris officials voted last year to renew LVMH’s concession for the amusement park, opening the way for a planned three-year renovation of the garden and its attractions. Also nearby is the former Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires, an ethnological museum that has been sitting vacant since 2005 and could well be next on Arnault’s list.