The artwork, by US sculptor Charles Ray, will be replaced by a lamp-post at the tip of the Punta della Dogana.

BBC: Venice removes Charles Ray Boy with Frog statue

Pinault is also hoping to win the bidding on a larger venue, the 34, 000-square-foot Punta della Dogana, site of the 17th-century Venice customs house.

FORBES: Why the man who controls Gucci had to have his own museum.

So the following year, with a tip of the hat to his past life sparring over corporate assets, Pinault prevailed in a vicious battle with the Guggenheim Foundation to take over the nearly 40, 000-square-foot Punta della Dogana.

WSJ: Collecting Art With Fran?ois Pinault

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection houses a first-class collection of 20th-century art from Dali to Duchamp in a beautiful white palazzo on the Grand Canal, and the Punta della Dogana, a contemporary art centre at the tip of Dorsoduro, contains the modern art collection of Francois Pinault, the CEO of Kering, which owns labels like Gucci and Saint Laurent.

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