Guillaume Cerutti is retiring from the management of the Pinault Collection, which he has held since February 2025. His departure, confirmed by the person himself to the Journal des Arts, comes after only thirteen months at the head of this structure which oversees the Bourse de Commerce in Paris as well as the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana in Venice. No official explanation has yet been given.
In January 2025, the Pinault family entrusted him with an expanded role by placing him at the head of the cultural activities of Artémis, its holding company, while keeping him in the orbit of Christie’s, of which he remained chairman of the board of directors. He then succeeded, in fact, a series of managers who remained more or less long in the changing organization chart of the Pinault Collection.
His arrival was followed, a few months later, by the discreet departure of Denis Berthomier, who returned to the Court of Auditors after two years as general manager of the Pinault Collection. Already in 2020, Sylvain Fort left the institution after only six months, an episode revealing the difficulties of stabilizing management around the collection. A year later, it was a “history” of the Pinault house – Martin Bethenod – which took off.
Aged 58 at the time of his appointment, Guillaume Cerutti displays a rare profile, at the crossroads of senior civil service, cultural administration and the art market. A former financial inspector, he was director general of the Center Pompidou from 1996 to 2001, then director of Jean-Jacques Aillagon’s cabinet at the Ministry of Culture between 2002 and 2004, before joining the private sector. He joined Sotheby’s in 2007, then joined Christie’s in 2016, where he was executive director for eight years.
François Pinault is now 89 years old.
