Leather and canvas

摘要

Is a Louis Vuitton handbag a work of art? Bernard Arnault, boss of Moeet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (lvmh) the world's biggest luxury-goods group, would like you to think so. lvmh recently opened an art gallery on the seventh floor of its new flagship store on the Avenue des Champs Elysees. The inaugural exhibition features work by Vanessa Beecroft, a fashionable American artist. One of the exhibits involves large photographs of naked black and white women forming the Louis Vuitton letters. Another is a video of a tableau vivant of almost naked women posing like handbags on the shelves of the shop. Ms Beecroft insists that: "I am not being used to sell bags, but to clean up the conscience of a sophisticated brand that allows intellectual and revolutionary content to emerge."