Guillaume Cerutti Named to Lead the Château de Versailles

The French government has named Guillaume Cerutti as the next president of the Château de Versailles, the royal palace on the edge of Paris. President Emmanuel Macron nominated him, the French Ministry of Culture said in a press release dated 4 November 2026. He will take up the post on 9 November 2026.

He replaces Christophe Leribault, who left Versailles in February to lead the Louvre, the museum in Paris. The palace is run by a state body called the Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles, which is a public organisation that manages the buildings, the museum and the grounds.

Cerutti is 60. He is a graduate of the École nationale d'administration, the French state school that trains senior civil servants, and is often called an "énarque" in France after it. Franceinfo reported on his nomination and background.

His early career was in government. He served as chief of staff to France's minister of culture, the minister's most senior adviser, before becoming managing director of the Centre Pompidou, the modern and contemporary art centre in Paris.

He then moved into the art market. He was chief executive of Sotheby's France from 2007 to 2011, and later chief executive of the auction house Christie's, a role he held until January 2025. Auction houses sell art to the highest bidder, and their chief executives oversee the sales.

In February 2025 he became president of the Pinault Collection, a private contemporary art collection. ArtNews reported that he left that post in the spring of 2026, after 13 months.

The appointment brings a man with experience in government, a public museum, an auction house and a private collection to one of France's best-known historic sites. Versailles now has a new president who will start work in less than a week.