French billionaire named art world's most powerful figure

French billionaire Franois Pinault, who owns Christie's auction house and has a private art collectioncomprising some of the biggest names in art, tops this year's ArtReview Power 100, a list of the most powerful people in the art world.

It is the second year that Pinault, 71, has come No. 1 on the list, which waspublished Friday.

Pinault has stepped away from business interests that include the Artemis retail empire to concentrate on his two Venice galleries the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal, which he bought two years ago, and the Punta della Dogana customs warehouse, which he hopes to open next year, both with designs by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Christie's has raked in more than $890 million this year just from postwar and contemporary sales, with most of the fall auction season still to come.

The top 10 spots in the list include two directors of major museums, three major collectors, three private gallery owners and just one artist.

That artist is Briton Damien Hirst, who caused a stir earlier this year with his diamond-studded skull that sold for $100 millionand that wasdisplayed at a private London gallery that also made the list.

Hirst is not only the sole artist in this year'sTop 10, he is the only artist ever tohead the list, having come No. 1 in 2005.

The British art magazine ArtReview ranks artists and collectors based on four criteria: financial clout, the ability to influence the production of art, importance on a global level and activity during the past 12 months.

Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry, now based out of Los Angeles, moved up the list. Heranked No. 38 this year, up from 58 last year.

It was a year when Gehry opened hisfirst building in New York and won numerous contracts, including a new museum in Paris, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation.

Other artists to make the Power 100 list include U.S.-based Jeff Koons at 13, Richard Serra at 19, Bruce Nauman at 52 and Canadian photographerJeff Wall at 57.

Surrealist painter Zhang Xiaogang came in at No. 86, the first time a Chinese artist has made the list.

Alsofor the first time, an Indian artist and auctioneer, Anupam Poddar, joined the list, reflecting a growing market for art in India.

The New York art world dominated the list, with U.S. galleries and collectors outnumbering significant collectors from London, despite the huge run-up in art prices in both centres.

Among the top movers and shakers in the Power 100 are Nicholas Serota, director of Britain's four Tate galleries, and Glenn Lowry, director of New York's influential Museum of Modern Art.

Collectors in the Top 10 include Eli Broad, whose private collection will fill the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles; Charles Saatchi, who is opening a new museum in London; andhedge-fund billionaire and collector of contemporary art Steven Cohen.

The Top 10 list:

1. Franois Pinault.
2. Larry Gagosian, New York gallery owner.
3. Nicholas Serota.
4. Glenn Lowry.
5. Eli Broad.
6. Damien Hirst.
7. Charles Saatchi.
8. Jay Jopling, London gallery owner.
9. Steven Cohen.
10. David Zwirner, New York gallery owner.