Guillaume Cerutti, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and CEO of Sotheby’s France, is headed across the Channel to become president of Christie’s  for London, Continental Europe, the Middle East, India, and Russia. He will take up his new post in mid-2016, after a non-compete clause expires, reports French paper Les Echos.

Cerutti has significantly strengthened Sotheby’s France, overseeing a fourfold increase in sales at the house over the last decade, propelling the house from fourth-highest sales in Paris, behind Christie’s, Tajan, and Artcurial, to first. He also initiated sales in partnership with Piasa, Artcurial, Binoche and Giquello, and Pierre Bergés Associates.

Les Echos suggests that Cerutti may have departed after being passed over for a promotion despite the house’s posting €217 million in revenue in 2014.

Cerutti first signed on with Sotheby’s in 2007 as president-director of Sotheby’s France, becoming vice president for Europe in 2011. He served the previous three years as head of the executive office for consumerism and competition in the French ministry of economy and finance. From 2002 to 2004, Cerutti was the chief of staff for the minister of culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon. For five years before that, he had been CEO of the Centre Georges Pompidou, overseeing the renovation of the Musée National d’Art Moderne.

He’ll report to Christie’s CEO Patricia Barbizet. Christie’s is owned by French megacollector François Pinault.

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