Happy Monday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s best new reporting. Today, we lead with Marion Maneker’s insider account of Guillaume Cerutti’s exit as C.E.O. of Christie’s and elevation to president of the Pinault Collection—a rarefied new posting that’s triggered a predictable game of telephone in the art market, filled with all sorts of informed (and uninformed) speculation about what the Pinault family might be plotting. Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan relays how Wall Street insiders are weighing the arrival of Trump II. Julie Davich surfaces the striking backstory of an expansive art collection’s fortuitous escape from Los Angeles. Sarah Shapiro dives into the latest trends and emerging themes shaping the retail landscape. And Bill chronicles a flurry of legal judgments quasi-vindicating the disgraced Apollo founder Leon Black. Meanwhile, on the podcasts: John Ourand rings up ESPN studio host Laura Rutledge on The Varsity to assess the NFL’s fantasy of global expansion. On Impolitic, John Heilemann chats with The New York Times’s Michael S. Schmidt about the known-unknowns surrounding the incoming administration. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly reunites with Peter Hamby to study the long-term effects of the catastrophic fires in Los Angeles.

The announcement of Guillaume Cerutti’s promotion to chairman of the board at Christie’s and president of the Pinault Collection—which has been described as an “organization for the artistic and cultural activities” of François Pinault and his son François-Henri Pinault—sparked considerable speculation within the auction industry. After all, in the eight years since Cerutti was appointed by Pinault père as Christie’s C.E.O., he transformed key aspects of the auction house’s business. Would he apply this same heavy-handed approach to the Pinault Collection, and elevate its cultural profile to the level of the Arnaults’ Fondation Louis Vuitton? Other artworld insiders are fixated on a different scenario: With Pinault stepping back and Cerutti returning to Paris, could this be the prelude to the family quietly exploring the sale of Christie’s? Read Now

Wall Street is gearing up for a big year in investment banking. Over the past year, the six largest U.S. banks generated a net income of $146 billion—led by Jamie Dimon’s JPMChase powerhouse—with net earnings of $54 billion. Are these figures the precursor to another earnings fest in 2025? Perhaps, but as Bill notes, the market is long overdue for a correction, and there is at least one warning beacon flashing in the bond market. To get a sense of how the next year might shake out, Bill rang up Lotfi Karoui, the chief credit strategist in Goldman Sachs’s research department. His message was both fascinating and reassuring. Read Now

Open source AI is available to all, not just the few. Studies show it takes hundreds of days to match patients with a clinical trial. The solution: "We used Meta's free open source AI model, Llama, to build an AI tool that helps match patients to clinical trials in a day," says Dr. Salloum. Learn more about how others are building with open source AI.

About six months ago, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and her husband, the film producer Frank Marshall, made the prescient decision to reach out to their art advisor, Barbara Guggenheim. Increasingly concerned about wildfires in their Los Angeles neighborhood, they decided to sell their expansive collection of 20th century American art, which they had amassed over nearly four decades. While their home was spared in the recent tragedy, their collection is now on display at Schoelkopf Gallery in Tribeca through February 28. Julie spoke with Guggenheim about putting together the exhibition, American Stories: The Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall Collection, and its accompanying catalog. Read Now

A prevalent theme in retail, at least at the moment, is the manner in which brands are navigating the delicate balance between innovation and familiarity. These days, as Sarah observes, retailers tend to make data-driven decisions about when to lead a trend, versus follow it or establish a partnership. But when a trend really takes over the marketplace, it tends to appear across all price points and styles. To wit: Ever since the preppy and nostalgic ballet-meets-coquette pink emerged during the most recent Spring collection runway shows, it’s been trickling in at mall-brands stores. Herewith, a look at how everyone from Alaïa to Cos to Hill House Home are responding to this new phenomenon. Read Now

Leon Black, the founder of Apollo Global Management who stepped down from the company in 2021 amid back-to-back revelations about his ties to the late pedophile Jeffery Epstein and a long-ended affair, recently secured a series of legal victories. First, Leon’s onetime paramour Guzel Ganieva lost her appeal in her defamation lawsuit against him, initially brought by the Wigdor law firm on her behalf. Leon also won several procedural and substantive victories in his defense in a separate federal case, also brought by Wigdor, on behalf of a young autistic woman known only as “Jane Doe.” Now, Leon is pursuing a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Wigdor that survived a motion to dismiss in September 2024. Do these cases vindicate the disgraced Wall Street titan? Read Now

ESPN studio host Laura Rutledge joins John for an exuberant wide-ranging conversation about the future of the sports media business. Having recently signed an extension with ESPN, Laura discusses what drove her decision to stay put, before diving into the challenges of cord-cutting, the potential impact of streaming services like Netflix and YouTube TV, the CFP’s expansion, the NFL going abroad, and much more. Listen Now

Open source AI is available to all, not just the few. There are about 3 billion medical imaging exams done per year with a 4% error rate—that's millions of patients. The solution: "With Meta's free open source AI model, Llama, we built an AI tool to help catch radiology errors," says Dr. Clark. Learn more about how others are building with open source AI.

John is joined by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times scribe Michael S. Schmidt on the eve of Donald Trump’s second inauguration to discuss the road ahead. Proceeding from the premise that what Trump says matters less than what he actually does, Schmidt details the myriad ways in which 45/47 attempted to weaponize the government against his enemies in his first term; analyzes the confirmation hearing of Trump’s A.G. nominee, Pam Bondi; and revisits his story last fall in which Trump’s former chief of staff, General John Kelly, described Trump as a “fascist” and wannabe dictator. Listen Now

Jon Kelly and Peter come together to debate the viability of Maverick Carter’s fascinating plan to create an NBA-adjacent international basketball league, touching on Maverick’s ambitious fundraising efforts and discussing the potential conflicts of interest and red flags. The duo also foreshadow the long-term effects of the catastrophic L.A. fires: the politicization of aid, price gouging, and the role of insurance companies in shaping future development. Listen Now

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