Pierre Bergé

Pierre Bergé (1930 to 2017) was a French industrialist and patron of the arts who co-founded the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent with the designer of that name in 1961, after meeting him in 1958. The two were partners in life until 1976 and remained business partners afterwards. Bergé acted as chief executive of Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture until it closed in 2002 and then presided over the Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent Foundation. In 1996 he was fined one million francs for insider trading over a 1992 sale of shares in the house. He later bought a stake in the newspaper Le Monde with two other investors in 2010, was president of the Opéra Bastille from 1988 to 1994, and backed causes including Sidaction, the magazine Têtu and a museum of Berber art in Marrakesh.