In 2019, this vision materialised with the opening of Villepin, co-founded with his father. But it was a moment of crisis during the pandemic that gave him the final push. “It was when I realised—what would you do if there were no tomorrow?” Villepin emerged as a response: a gallery by collectors for collectors. Housed in a former antique shop, Villepin defies conventions of a typical gallery; its interiors are reimagined by different designers for each exhibition. For Yukimasa Ida, this meant a vertical journey through history and the cosmos; for Zao Wou-Ki, rerouted pipes made way for bamboo installations, underscoring harmony with nature.
Their current group exhibition, “Worlds Within: Art as Refuge,” involved breaking down walls to build a library using wood from a 100-year-old house in China’s Yunnan Province. “You can smell the old wood and touch it,” says Rishika Assomull, Senior Director at Villepin. This nook was created to encourage visitors to read about the artists. Leading up to the library is a Japanese Zen garden with pebbles, nestled beside a bar—each element inspired by artists in the show. The garden pays homage to a painting by Fernando Zóbel, while the cocktail translates Lê Phổ’s sunlit garden scenes into a drink with floral gin, jasmine tea, lemongrass, and edible flowers.
For this show, furniture—meant for both perching and pause—is sourced by interior designer Thierry Lemaire, who also redesigned several reception rooms of the Elysée Palace, including the French President’s office. Villepin, through its cross-curatorial approach, feels less like a gallery and more like a home. Couches by Pierre Augustin Rose and antique tables invite visitors to linger; each piece chosen in dialogue with the works on view.
It’s a quiet kind of diplomacy through curation, where art, design, and architecture work in harmony to bring the space together. Many furnishings, curated with the same discernment as the art, are also available for acquisition, allowing collectors to take home not just a painting, but the poetic setting around it.
Now in its fifth year, Villepin is led by Assomull, author of “The Jakarta Salon” and former Deputy Director and Senior Specialist at Sotheby’s Asia. Together with de Villepin, she hints at plans for India. “My dream is to offer Indian artists to our Hong Kong gallery,” says Assomull. “Arthur and I both have personal connections to India.”