Paris, you might think, is the most art-saturated city in the world. Setting up a private exhibition hall to compete with the Grand Palais, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou and the rest would be an exercise in futility: like offering Australian wines, or, worse, Burgundy, to one of the leading Bordeaux chateaux.

Think again. There is a new star rising in the Paris art world, still relatively little known to tourists but already a favourite with Parisians. The Pinacothèque, a privately run, wholly unsubsidised exhibition space has come from nowhere to lead the field in just over two years. In the last 12 months, it has outdone all other Parisian exhibition halls in the number of visitors attracted to temporary art shows.