Blunt, Anthony

Blunt, Anthony (Frederick)

(born Sept. 26, 1907, Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng.—died March 26, 1983, London) British art historian and spy. He began his espionage for the Soviet Union after meeting Guy Burgess at the University of Cambridge in the 1930s. From 1937 Blunt had a brilliant career as an art historian, publishing scores of scholarly works that largely established art history in Britain. In World War II he served in British military intelligence and also gave secret information to the Soviets. In 1945 he was appointed surveyor of the king's (later queen's) pictures, and in 1947 he became director of the prestigious Courtauld Institute. He ceased active intelligence work but in 1951 arranged for the escape of Burgess and Donald Maclean (1913–1983) from Britain. In 1964, after the defection of Kim Philby, Blunt was confronted by British authorities and secretly confessed his Soviet connections. When his past as the “fourth man” in the spy ring was made public in 1979, he was stripped of the knighthood awarded him in 1956.