Guillaume Cerutti Steps Down as President of the Pinault Collection After 13 Months
Guillaume Cerutti is leaving his role as president of the Pinault Collection after only 13 months, a sudden leadership change at one of Europe’s most closely watched private museum operations. No official announcement has been issued and no explanation has been provided for his departure, which was first reported by the investigative publication Glitz and confirmed on March 26 by a Pinault Collection spokesperson.
Cerutti, 60, moved from London to Paris in February 2025 to take the top job at the Pinault Collection, the art organization founded by French billionaire François Pinault. The collection is said to include more than 10,000 works and is presented through a network of museums in Paris and Venice. It also sits within a broader corporate constellation: the Pinault Collection has a controlling stake in the luxury goods conglomerate Kering.
Cerutti has worked with Pinault in multiple capacities over the past decade and will continue to hold influential positions within the group. He remains chair of the boards of Christie’s auction house and Stade Rennais Football Club, both owned by Artémis, the holding company Pinault founded in 1998.
Neither Cerutti nor Pinault commented on the reasons for the departure when approached. The exit comes within a leadership structure that, while relatively lean, is layered at the top. François Pinault, 89, holds the title “président d’honneur” (honorary president) and is still actively involved in the life of the collection and its museums, working closely with his longtime advisor Jean-Jacques Aillagon. Pinault is expected in Venice on Friday for the openings of exhibitions at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana.
Operational oversight of the museums is led by Emma Lavigne, the director general, with Bruno Racine heading the museums in Paris and Venice. Anne Poperen serves as administrative and financial director.
Cerutti’s departure is notable given his stature in both cultural administration and the art market. A former senior civil servant, he was once described by Jean-Paul Cluzel as a “Rolls Royce intellectual.” Early in his career at France’s ministry of economy and finance, he wrote reports that influenced public funding for cinema and shaped decisions around the country’s then-new opera house.
At 30, Cerutti was recruited by Aillagon, then chair of the Centre Pompidou, to serve as the institution’s managing director. When Aillagon became France’s minister of culture, Cerutti joined him as chief of staff from 2002 to 2004.
He later moved decisively into the auction world. In 2007, Cerutti became chief executive officer of Sotheby’s France, where he helped drive the business from fourth to first in national auction sales. By 2011, he had risen to deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe. François Pinault hired him in 2016 as Christie’s president for Europe, Middle East, Russia and India; a year later, he was promoted to chief executive officer. During his tenure, he oversaw headline-making moments including the sale of “Salvator Mundi” in London and the auction of the Peggy and David Rockefeller’s collection in New York.
For the Pinault Collection, Cerutti’s exit leaves open questions about how the organization will balance its museum ambitions in Paris and Venice with the gravitational pull of Pinault’s continued involvement — and how it will position itself amid an increasingly competitive landscape for private collections operating on a public scale.
