Art collector Bernard Arnault, one of the richest men in the world, spoke bitterly against plans for France to institute a tax on the ultra-wealthy, calling the proposal “offensive.”
The plan is the brainchild of the economist Gabriel Zucman, whose proposal would see particularly rich people pay a 2 percent tax on their wealth. Zucman has claimed his plan will rake in 20 billion euros ($27 billion). “Unprecedented wealth concentration—and the unbridled power that comes with such wealth—has distorted our democracy and is driving societal and economic tensions,” he previously wrote in the Guardian.
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Right-wing politicians have claimed the tax would severely undermine the economy. Arnault, whom Forbes says is worth $156 billion, had a similar bone to pick, telling the Sunday Times that the tax plan is “deadly for our economy.”
He went on to claim that he was “certainly the largest individual taxpayer and one of the largest professional taxpayers through the companies I run.”
Those companies are part of LVMH, a luxury conglomerate whose portfolio includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Tiffany & Co., and Sephora. Through the fortune brought in by LVMH, Arnault has been able to amass a significant art collection and has regularly appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list. He was once the richest person anywhere across the globe.
Arnault’s statement to the Sunday Times also included some personal insults directed at Zucman. He said Zucman was “first and foremost a far-left activist” who exhibited “pseudo-academic competence.” (Never mind that Zucman actually is an academic: he is a professor at the Paris School of Economics.)
Zucman then went on to roast Arnault, whom he urged to respect “the truth and facts.”
“With the rise of Trumpism, I have seen this rhetoric flourish, denigrating knowledge and research in the United States,” Zucman told the Agence France-Presse. He denied that he was an activist working on behalf of any party.
Others rose to Zucman’s defense. Thomas Piketty, the influential economist who once acted as a teacher to Zucman, said that Arnault was merely “talking nonsense” and noted that, between 2010 and 2025, more than 500 of the world’s greatest fortunes rose by 500 percent.
“With a tax of 2% per year, it would take a century to get back to the 2010 level, assuming they receive no income in the meantime,” Piketty wrote on X. “Is that what it means to bring the French economy to its knees?”