The Louis Vuitton Foundation, a new museum in Paris, was designed by Frank Gehry and showcases the collection of the billionaire Bernard Arnault. The privately funded museum cost $135 million.CreditFrancois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Even as the economy and his own fortunes sputter, PresidentFrançois Hollande has whirled through a flurry of recent museum openings and art events in Paris with the zeal of someone in the middle of a political campaign, reveling in the nation’s place as a capital of culture.

On Saturday, the state-run Picasso museum swung open the grand doors toits remodeled 17th-century Baroque mansion, overhauled at a cost of 50 million euros (about $63 million). On Monday, the Louis Vuitton Foundation formally opened to the public a $135 million museum of billowing glass sails and misted ponds to show off the private collection of the billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Paris also hosted a sprawling contemporary art fair that drew galleries from around the world.

“We cannot build anything based on nostalgia,” but instead “on emotion, hope and conquest,” Mr. Hollande said at the inauguration of the Musée Picasso, boasting that France was “culturally shining.”....Continue Reading

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