François Pinault

François Pinault
Born	21 August 1936 (Forbes)
Nationality	French
Residence	Paris, France (Forbes)
Occupation	Businessman, art collector
Known for	Founder of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (now Kering) and Artémis; owner of Christie's; Pinault Collection
Children	3 (Forbes), including François-Henri Pinault

French businessman; founder of the group now called Kering and of the Pinault family investment company Artémis

François Pinault (born 1936) is a French businessman. He built a timber-trading business into the retail and luxury group Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, now Kering, and in 1992 founded Artémis, the Pinault family's investment company.^[1]^[2]^[3] Artémis holds 42.3% of Kering and owns the auction house Christie's, the Château Latour wine estate, the football club Stade Rennais, the news magazine Le Point and, since 2023, a majority stake in the Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).^[4]^[2]^[5]^[6] His son François-Henri Pinault succeeded him as chairman of Artémis in 2003.^[2] Forbes lists him with his family. On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked François Pinault & family 105th in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$24.4 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Luxury goods.^[3]^[7] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked François Pinault 81st, at US$29.5 billion.^[8] His contemporary art collection is shown in Paris and Venice by the Pinault Collection.^[9]

Early life

Forbes gives his date of birth as 21 August 1936 and describes him as a high-school dropout from a family of timber traders.^[3] Le Monde reported in 1995 that he started with a loan of 100,000 francs in 1963, which allowed him to leave the family sawmill business for timber trading.^[1]

Business career

Le Monde traced his rise in its 1995 profile. He took over furniture and office-equipment makers through the commercial courts, then in 1986–87 bought and resold, at a profit, the plywood maker Isoroy and the newsprint producer La Chapelle-Darblay. He went on to acquire the trading house CFAO in 1990 and the Conforama and Printemps chains in 1991. By then his Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) group had sales of 70 billion francs.^[1] The paper added that much of his fortune sat in two discreet holding companies, Artémis and Financière Pinault, which controlled Château Latour and a US arm built on junk bonds bought in 1992 from Altus, a subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais. He was a director of that bank.^[1]

According to Artémis, the company was set up in 1992 to hold his controlling stake in PPR, founded in 1963 and renamed Kering in 2013. Artémis puts its consolidated assets at around €60 billion. It bought Château Latour in 1993, Le Point in 1997, Christie's and Stade Rennais in 1998, the publisher Tallandier in 1999 and the cruise line Ponant in 2015.^[2]^[5] François Pinault is listed as a managing partner of Artémis, alongside François-Henri.^[2] Forbes says the move into luxury goods began in 1999 with the purchase of a controlling stake in Gucci Group, and that Kering, which also owns Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, is run by François-Henri.^[3]

In September 2023 Artémis agreed to buy TPG's majority stake in Creative Artists Agency.^[6]

Executive Life affair

In December 2003 the US Department of Justice announced settlements of $771.75 million in the Executive Life affair. The case concerned false statements to federal banking regulators when the junk-bond portfolio and insurance business of the failed Executive Life Insurance Company of California were acquired. Crédit Lyonnais and others agreed to plead guilty.^[10] The DoJ described Artémis as a holding company controlled by Pinault. Artémis agreed to pay $185 million, of which $110 million went to former Executive Life policyholders. Pinault and Artémis were not charged: they had cooperated with the investigation since June 2000 in exchange for immunity from prosecution.^[10]

The California Department of Insurance pursued a separate civil case, alleging that Altus had concealed its ownership of the new insurer and that Artémis had joined that conspiracy later. In 2005 a federal court ordered Artémis to pay $131 million of its profits to policyholders. After an appeal and a retrial in 2012, Artémis agreed in July 2015 to pay $200 million, on top of the $110 million already paid, ending 16 years of litigation.^[11]

Kering tax settlement in Italy

Company level: in May 2019 Kering said it had settled with the Italian Revenue Agency over claims against its Swiss subsidiary Luxury Goods International. The claims concerned an undeclared permanent establishment in Italy between 2011 and 2017 and the transfer prices charged to Guccio Gucci S.p.A. The settlement involved €897 million in additional tax and a total payment of €1.25 billion.^[12] Corriere della Sera called it the largest sum ever paid to the Italian tax authorities, noting that investigators had alleged evasion of €1.4 billion.^[13]

Wealth

Forbes lists his source of wealth as luxury goods and covers him together with his family.^[3] Artémis, which controls the family's holdings, said in 2023 that its consolidated assets exceeded US$40 billion, and its website now puts them at about €60 billion.^[6]^[2]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 26 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2001. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[8]^[3]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2001	47	6.3
2002	118	3.1
2003	123	2.8
2004	91	4.7
2005	76	5.9
2006	74	7.0
2007	34	14.5
2008	39	16.9
2009	60	7.6
2010	77	8.7
2011	67	11.5
2012	59	13.0
2013	53	15.0
2014	58	15.5
2015	65	14.9
2016	84	11.5
2017	63	15.7
2018	30	27.0
2019	30	29.7
2020	27	27.0
2021	32	42.3
2022	32	40.4
2023	28	40.1
2024	54	31.6
2025	93	21.7
2026	81	29.5

Art collection and philanthropy

The Pinault Collection runs three museums: the Bourse de Commerce in Paris and the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice.^[9] Artémis records that it acquired the Palazzo Grassi in 2005, that Punta della Dogana reopened as a gallery in 2009, and that Pinault and the mayor of Paris announced the conversion of the Bourse de Commerce in 2016.^[2] In a 2023 press release TPG and CAA described the Pinault Collection as the world's largest private collection of contemporary art.^[6]

After the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in April 2019, the Pinault family pledged €100 million for its restoration. On 1 October 2019 François Pinault and François-Henri signed an agreement with the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, to formalise the gift. By then €10 million had been released, and Pinault said the full sum would go to the Fondation Notre-Dame even if the restoration cost less than expected.^[14]

Political activity

Le Monde called him a "chiraquien", a supporter of Jacques Chirac, in a 1995 profile. It reported that on the night of Chirac's election as president that year, Bernadette Chirac went on to Pinault's home.^[1] Through Artémis the family owns the news magazine Le Point.^[2] No records of political donations or lobbying registrations in his name were found in the sources checked.

Controversies and legal issues

See Executive Life affair and, at company level, Kering tax settlement in Italy.^[10]^[12]

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."