François Pinault Foundation for Contemporary Art

A few years ago, when French billionaire François Pinault was searching for an original way to show a sculpture by the American conceptual artist Richard Serra that he had acquired, he decided to buy a ruined chapel in Brittany, dismantle it, transport it across France and rebuild it in the park outside his chateau. Local planning officials were aghast, but Pinault has never been one to allow bureaucracy, or logistics, to stand in his way.

More recently, when Pinault was looking for a larger venue to exhibit his collection of contemporary art, he selected an abandoned island in Paris, three miles along the Seine from the Eiffel tower. There, on the site of a derelict car manufacturing plant, he aims to build a private museum to rival the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Work has begun on Paris's latest architectural feat, the François Pinault Foundation for Contemporary Art. The £150m concrete and glass art gallery, on an abandoned island on the city's outskirts, is the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Aficionados of the avant-garde should be making their way along the Seine by 2008.

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