Guillaume Cerutti Out as President of Paris’s Pinault Collection After 13 Months

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. Guillaume Cerutti, the onetime CEO of Christie’s auction house who joined the Pinault Collection as president last February is stepping down after just thirteen months in the role, according to French investigative news platform Glitz. Though neither Cerutti nor the Pinault Collection has commented publicly on his departure, the Paris institution told the Art Newspaper that it had no plans to replace him, or to appoint an interim president. The Pinault Collection was established in 1999 by French billionaire François Pinault, founder of the luxury group Kering, and holds his assembly of more than ten thousand artworks. Though he is eighty-nine, Pinault serves as the collection’s honorary president and remains active in its management. He is also the owner of Christie’s, which he purchased in 1998 through his holding company, Artémis. Cerutti arrived at Christie’s in 2016 as president for Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and India, rising to become CEO the following year. From 2007 to 2011 he served as CEO of Sotheby’s in France; after elevating the business to become the country’s top auction house, he was made deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, retaining the role until he moved to Christie’s. Earlier roles include those of chief of staff to French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon and, earlier, managing director at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Though Cerutti has left the Pinault Collection, he remains engaged in business dealings with its founder, as he is chairman of the Christie’s board and also heads that of the Rennais Football Club, which Pinault also owns through Artémis.