Guillaume Cerutti is one of the most popular and richest Business Executive who was born on March 20, 1966 in La Ciotat, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. In September 2007 Cerutti was hired by Sotheby’s as the CEO in Sotheby’s France. He was named the deputy chairperson of Sotheby’s Europe and was responsible for France, Benelux, Monaco and Italy. The house went from the fourth highest sales to being the first to be first on the French market during his tenure, and particularly by leveraging a number of notable French art collections that were sold through Paris, London and New York.
Cerutti left Sotheby’s in 2015 to join Christie’s as president for EMERI (Europe, Middle East, Russia and India) and became CEO as of January 2017. In the year 2017, he led the company in a rise of 26 percent in total global sales. In addition, the house has held two majorly successful sales under Cerutti’s leadership, including the sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in November 2017 at Christie’s New York with the record-breaking price of $450.3 million and The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in May 2018 which achieved the highest auction total ever for a private collection.
Cerutti is the author of La politique culturelle, un enjeu du XXIème siècle, 20 propositions (éditions Odile Jacob, octobre 2016). He is also the contributor of several articles on cultural politics, notably in the review Commentaire as well as the newspapers Le Monde, Les Échos, and l’Opinion.
Between 2004 and 2007 Cerutti was the head in his department, the Directorate for Competition and Consumer Protection (DGCCRF) within the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance. In this role Cerutti was also the vice-president for the International Competition Network (ICN) which is a grouping of the heads of the global competition authorities.
He started his career in the civil service as an employee of Inspection Generale des Finances, the internal audit department that is part of the French Ministry of Finance and the Economy. In the month of March, 1996, he took over as the Managing Director of the Centre Georges Pompidou, a post he held during five consecutive years. From 2002 until 2004, he was chief of staff to Jean-Jacques Aillagon, French Minister for Culture and the Media. In this position, Cerutti was directly responsible for the creation of the “loi Aillagon law ‘ of August 1st 2003 that created the French legal system for foundations and sponsorship among the most appealing in Europe.
Since 2015, Cerutti has served as Chairman of the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques (FNAGP). In the past, he has also held the position of Chairman on the boards of several non-profit organizations in the cultural field, including the Accentus Chamber Choir (2007-2012), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles (2009-2010) and the Institute pour le Financement du Cinéma et des Industries Culturelles (2010-2016).
