Philippe de Montebello
| Philippe de Montebello | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Guy Philippe Henri Lannes de Montebello May 16, 1936 Paris |
| Known for | Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Philippe de Montebello (born May 16, 1936 in Paris) is a museum director. He served from 1977 to 2008 as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On his retirement, he was both the longest-serving director in the institution's history, and the third longest-serving director of any major art museum in the world (first is Irina Antonova, who was the Director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for 52 years, from 1961 to 2013, making her the oldest and the longest serving director of a major art museum in the world. Second is Knud W. Jensen, who served as the director of Denmark's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art north of Copenhagen for 35 years, from 1958 to 1993). From January 2009, Montebello took up a post as the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.
Born to a French family, de Montebello immigrated to the United States of America in the 1950s, and became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1955. He was educated in New York City at the Lycée Français, graduated from Harvard University with a degree in art history, and earned an MA from New York University, after which he embarked on a career in Fine Arts. He became the Director of the Metropolitan Museum in 1977 and has become widely known as the public face of the museum.
He announced his retirement on 8 January 2008, stating that he intended to step down by the end of 2008 after more than 31 years at his post.
Born Count Guy Philippe Henri Lannes de Montebello in Paris in 1936 to a family descended from the Napoleonic aristocracy, de Montebello was the second of four sons. His father, Count André Roger Lannes de Montebello (Biarritz, July 6, 1908 - New York City, December 2, 1986), was a portrait painter, art critic, and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. His mother, Germaine Wiener de Croisset (born in Paris, October 26, 1913 and married in Paris, November 30, 1933), was a descendant of the Marquis de Sade, a daughter of the playwright Francis de Croisset, and a half-sister of the arts patron Marie-Laure de Noailles. One of de Montebello's great-great-great-grandfathers was Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello and Marshal of France.
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