From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philippe de Montebello (born 1936) is a French-born museum curator. As of 2006 he is the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the longest-serving director in the institution's history.

He was born Guy Philippe Henri Lannes de Montebello in Paris in 1936 to the family of Napoleonic aristocracy - his great-great-great-grandfather was Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello and Marshal of France. His father, Count Roger Lannes de Montebello, was a portrait painter, art critic and a member of the French Resistance during World War II; his mother, Germaine Wiener de Croisset, was a descendant of the Marquis de Sade. Both parents were involved in a project to develop a form of three-dimensional photography, and it was in search of venture capital for this enterprise that the family came to New York in 1951. Whereas his brothers would all eventually return to France to take up jobs in banking, Philippe stayed in the United States and became an American citizen in 1955.

Montebello was educated at the Lycée Français in New York, where he received his baccalauréat in 1958. He then went on to study art history at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude, before continuing his studies at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts under Charles Sterling, the expert in French Renaissance art. He stopped short of receiving his doctorate when, in 1963, he was given the opportunity to work for the Met as a curatorial assistant in the Department of European Paintings. Thus began his career at the institution to which he was to dedicate his entire professional life, with the exception of a four-and-a-half-year stint (1969–1974) as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.

Before his sojourn in Houston, Montebello had risen through the ranks in the Department of European Paintings at the Met, eventually becoming Associate Curator. Upon his return to New York in 1974 (he has since remarked that "the happiest moment of my life was booking a one-way ticket out of Houston"), he was appointed Vice Director for Curatorial and Educational Affairs. By May 1977 he was Acting Director, and full directorship of the museum came a year later.

Under his directorship the Metropolitan Museum has nearly doubled in size to two million square feet. Notable changes have included the remodelling of the 19th-century European galleries, formerly Modernist, in a historicizing Beaux-Arts style, and a new high-ceilinged gallery to show off Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's monumental paintings to their best advantage. Criticism of de Montebello has usually focused on his conservatism regarding modern and contemporary art: in a 1999 editorial piece in the New York Times he lauded the city's mayor Rudy Giuliani for rubbishing Chris Ofili's infamous painting Holy Virgin Mary, which used elephant dung as one of its materials. During his tenure the Department of Modern Art at the Met has lagged behind the museum's other departments in its spending power, and did not buy its first Jasper Johns painting until 1999.

Montebello's famously heavy French accent can be heard on the Met's audioguides for exhibitions and the permanent collection. He also gives public readings of French poetry by Baudelaire, Rimbaud and others at the museum.

Among the numerous accolades that have been bestowed on him, Montebello was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1991. His adopted home country followed suit by awarding him the National Medal of Arts in 2002.

• Biography, departures.com
• Biography, Dartmouth News

• Interview with de Montebello, Apollo magazine