Guillaume Cerutti can credit himself with a triple experience in the cultural arena: as a high-ranking civil servant, notably leading the Pompidou Centre from 1996 to 2001; close to political power, as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Culture from 2002 to 2004; in the private sector, as CEO of Sotheby’s France from 2007 to 2015; and, soon, as President of Christie’s for Europe and the Middle East. This unusual career has allowed him to develop an original way of thinking about French cultural policy, contrary to the dogma in which it has been frozen in recent years.

Though our certainties may waver as we move toward an uncertain economic and social future, culture remains for France an exceptional asset and a critical issue, both at home and internationally.

It is nonetheless right that the objectives, structures and methods of cultural policy be subject to scrutiny. It is also fitting that it should be placed at the centre of plans for society and of the government’s position, particularly in view of the 2017 elections.

Such is the scope of this book, through an uncompromising analysis of the current situation and twenty very concrete proposals. Presented in the form of an ABC, we are taken from Architecture to Web, passing along the way Artists, Centre Pompidou, Cultural democracy, the European Union, Galleries, Heritage, Schools, Sponsorship, Radio and Television…