NEW YORK— Europe was hustling and bustling this week with two major arts institutions, the Centre Pompidou and Sotheby’s in France, announcing new executives. Across the Atlantic, there was a sad farewell, with New York saying goodbye to the founder of the now-defunct, famed underground punk club CBGB.

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PARIS—The Centre Pompidou has appointed Agnes Saal, the former head of the National Library of France, as its general director. Saal, 49, succeeds Bruno Maquart, who has moved on to lead the French Museums Agency, a group of some of France's leading cultural figures, who will help develop the Louvre branch in Abu Dhabi.

PARIS—Sotheby's has hired Guillaume Cerutti to head its business in France. Cerutti, formerly head of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance's Department of Consumer and Competitive Affairs, also served as managing director of the Centre Pompidou from 1996 to 2001. He replaces Philipp Wurttemberg, who became vice chairman of Sotheby's Europe earlier this year.

VENICE—Art events manager Monique Veaute has been appointed to lead Francois Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi and help develop a new contemporary arts center in his newly acquired building, the Punta della Dogana, a former customs house near the entrance to the Grand Canal. Veaute, a former journalist who also helped create Fondation Romaeuropa, organizer of a performing arts festival, succeeds Jean-Jacques Aillagon as chief executive of Palazzo Grassi. Aillagon became president of the Chateau de Versailles in June.

LONDON—Roger Tatley has been appointed director of communication for Hauser & Wirth. Tatley joins the gallery from New York-based Modern Painters magazine, where he has been since 2004, serving as editor in chief since 2006.

CLEVELAND—The Cleveland Museum of Art’s deputy director for collections Charles Venable is leaving his post for a position as chief executive officer of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky. Venable has been at the Cleveland museum since 2002. His appointment at the Speed, which begins Oct. 29, will include leading the museum’s expansion project.

Farewells
EAST FALMOUTH, Mass.—Art historian and biographer Peggy Samuels has died at the age of 84, the New York Times reports. “Mrs. Samuels and her husband, who died in 2002, were art collectors who roamed from auctions to estate sales in search of Western works, became art dealers and then turned their passion into a shared writing career,” according to the Times. “Neither had formal training in art history. But their first book, The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West (Doubleday, 1976), is considered one of the most authoritative texts on the subject.”

NEW YORK—CBGB founder Hilly Kristal has died from complications of lung cancer at the age of 75. Performances at Kristal’s edgy Bowery bar became a rite of passage for punk bands in the 1970s, and sparked careers for the likes of the Ramones, Blondie, and the Talking Heads. Kristal fought a long legal battle with the club’s landlord to keep the landmark open, but lost last year, and the club closed down after 33 years in business. He was considering resurrecting the venue in another large city.