Bernard Arnault follows in his footsteps

Amancio Ortega, founder of the Inditex empire, is known worldwide for his success in fashion, but perhaps he has gone a little more unnoticed with his second empire based on brick: Pontegadea.

In a similar vein, Bernard Arnault, founding architect of the LVMH luxury fashion holding companyhas also been diversifying his fortune by adding mansions, mansions, hotels and vineyards to his assets, consolidating a second real estate empire.

Diversifying in brick is also luxury. Bernard Arnault ousted Elon Musk as the world’s richest person for much of 2023 and from February to the end of May 2024, at which point weak sales at Louis Vuitton made that his fortune suffered. According to ForbesArnault is currently the seventh greatest fortune with assets estimated at 160.3 billion dollars.

This drop from first place is partly due to the decline in LVMH’s profits, with a 2% decline in turnover in the first quarter of 2025 and a 17.3% drop in net profits in 2024. The loss of assets has prompted Arnault to intensify the diversification of your wealthespecially in the real estate sector. Although his real estate investment is significant, it does not reach the scale of Amancio Ortega, who has positioned Pontegadea as the largest real estate agency in Spain and one of the mmost promising in Europe.

Mansions and mansions: luxury jewels in exclusive locations. As and how they count in PurePeopleamong Arnault’s latest acquisitions is his villa in Les Parcs de Saint-Tropez, an exclusive enclave on the French Riviera. Bernard Arnault paid about 40 million euros for a 400m2 area with private access to the beach and shares a neighborhood with other great French fortunes.

It also has the historic castle Casa degli Atellani in Milana restored 15th century building that has the peculiarity of having been the former residence of Leonardo da Vinci while the artist was under the protection of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

In addition, Arnault has several mansions and palaces around Paris. The last of them has been a 2,000 square meter property owned by film producer and businessman Jérôme Seydoux in the central 7th arrondissement of Paris for almost 100 million euros.

Strategic investment in wine. The wine business is one of the main pillars of LVMH, which is why Arnault has made important acquisitions in recent years to strengthen his empire with vineyards and wineries that produce high-end wines. At the end of 2024, with his fortune in marked decline, the millionaire bought 1.3 hectares of vineyards in the Poisot domain, in Aloxe-Corton (Burgundy) for 15.5 million euros.

In 2023, the luxury magnate took over Château Minuty, a true Saint-Tropez institution. The same year, bought Château d’Esclans in La Motte and the 55 hectares of the neighboring Domaine du Jas d’Esclans, thus completing an operation that made Bernard Arnault one of the largest landowners in that wine-growing area of ​​eastern France.

luxury hotels. Arnault did not limit himself to investing in mansions or vineyards, he has also invested heavily in the luxury hospitality business. In July 2025, through his company Agache, the millionaire acquired the legendary five-star hotel Cap Estel in Èze on the Côte d’Azur for 200 million euros. This hotel was the usual holiday retreat for celebrities such as Greta Garbo, The Beatles and members of the Irish band U2 when they visited the area.

As and how he published Financial Timesvery close by, in Saint-Tropez, the millionaire had already bought the Château Cheval Blanc vineyard, and converted the main building into an imposing luxury hotel with 72 rooms at a rate of 1,150 euros per night.

In the same town, Arnault is also the owner of the White 1921, an iconic boutique hotel on the Place des Lices where each suite costs about 650 euros. Nearby Cannes is not far behind. There the magnate owns the Villa Bagatelle, a 3,000 m2 building that the millionaire bought in 2024 for 46.5 million euros, and which now serves as a setting for parties, exhibitions and presentations by houses such as Dior, Louis Vuitton or Moët & Chandon, especially during the Cannes Festival. Everything stays at home.

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Image | Flickr (UNESCO Headquarters Paris)