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A grandson of French billionaire François Pinault has joined the board of Christie’s in the first sign of third-generation succession planning within the family behind luxury group Kering.
François Louis Nicolas Pinault, 26, replaced family patriarch and Kering founder François Pinault, 87, as a director on the board of the auctioneer on March 26, according to a filing published this week.
London-based Christie’s was founded in 1766 but was bought by Artémis, the Pinault family’s holding company, in 1998.
The younger Pinault is a French national whose occupation is listed as “product marketing manager”, according to the document. The move was first reported by Bloomberg.
Kering, which owns brands including Gucci and Saint Laurent, has been led by the patriarch’s son, François-Henri Pinault, 61, ever since his father stepped back from the group he built in 2003. François Louis Nicolas is François-Henri’s eldest son.
Kering’s success has made the Pinaults one of France’s richest and most prominent families, although the group is currently facing more challenging times compared to rivals LVMH and Hermès as sales at Gucci slide.
Neither of François-Henri’s siblings are involved in day-to-day management at Kering, but they sit on the supervisory board at Artémis.
The appointment of a younger member of the Pinault family to a prominent board seat within the family holdings comes at a time of heightened interest about the ascension of a new generation within high profile family-controlled businesses in France.
Two of the sons of LVMH founder Bernard Arnault are expected to join the board of the luxury leader later this month, giving four out of his five children seats. All five have roles within the group.
In addition to housing the controlling stake in luxury group Kering and the family’s art collection, Artémis also has investments in sports apparel brand Puma, vineyards, luxury fashion brands Courrèges and Giambattista Valli and technology firms.
Last year, Artémis bought a majority stake in Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency, which was presented as a move to diversify the family’s holdings away from pure luxury.
Christie’s, which had sales of €6.2bn last year, is an important business for the Pinault family although it is not their largest.
François Pinault has a personal interest in the art world, and Christie’s lends the family both visibility and credibility in the rarefied world of art collecting.
Over the past half-century, Pinault has amassed a collection of more than 10,000 pieces focusing on contemporary works that are shown in the museums he has built in locations including Bourse de Commerce in Paris and Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
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