Artprice lifts the veil on the new Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris

A cultural centre on the Champs-Elysees. a Foundation dedicated to artistic creation. and now a superb new museum in the Bois de Boulogne just outside Paris, the French LVMH Group has established itself as a leading institution for Contemporary art in France.

We know its founder, Bernard Arnault, as a passionate art lover and a discreet collector who is particularly well advised. As of next Monday, we will discover the works exhibited in the brand new museum designed by architect Frank Gehry.

Kept largely secret, the collection housed in this magnificent museum brings together works by artists from all over the globe - some young and unknown, others hugely successful - and it is equally diverse in terms of size and media. A priori, their only point in common is creation during the 20th and 21st centuries.

In fact, aside from the superb artworks themselves, the Louis Vuitton Foundation has pursued the very art of collecting art ... the art of collecting a broad range of diverse works which interact and complement each other, forming a single, harmonious and unique ensemble.

Ahead of a detailed review to be published by Artprice in November, here is a short preview of some of the works and curiosities in this remarkable collection.

There will of course be big names ... we know that Bernard Arnault is a huge fan of Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon and Richard Serra, as well as Yves Klein and Jean-Michel Basquiat. We can also expect to find works by Contemporary market giants like Gerhard Richter, Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst and the king of kitsch, Jeff Koons.

Works valued in million, sometimes tens of millions of euros. But the Foundation also endeavours to present works that are more complicated to own and which often escape the acquisition merry-go-round... a most welcome initiative in the highly codified environment of today's marketplace.

The Foundation has taken full advantage of its illustrious new space to present works by artists more often seen at biennials than at galleries or auction houses. These include works by the French artist Pierre Huyghe whose videos, installations and performances are better suited to institutions than to collectors.

The collection also includes other French artists of course and the Foundation has indicated it will soon be exhibiting works by Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier. The names Annette Messager, Dominique Gonzales-Foester and Jean Dubuffet have also been advanced. However, the Foundation has no desire to limit itself to France.