Old shoes and empty bottles are strewn across the rotting floors.

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Venice jumped into the picture last year, when Italian officials invited Pinault to fill shoes left empty when honorary Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli died in 2003 and his company stopped supporting revolving art exhibits at the palazzo.

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Venice jumped into the picture last year, when Italian officials invited Pinault to fill shoes left empty when honorary Fiat (nyse: FIA - news - people ) chairman Gianni Agnelli died in 2003 and his company stopped supporting revolving art exhibits at the palazzo.

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He took over an empty factory in Bredebro and began making shoes in 1963.

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But the containers that arrive from Shanghai filled with shoes and televisions would otherwise go home empty.

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