de Montebello, Philippe Lannes

de Montebello, Philippe Lannes

(1936–  ) museum director; born in Paris, France. Descendent of a distinguished French family, he was brought to New York City by his parents in 1950. He studied at Harvard (B.A. 1958) and at New York University (B.A. 1963; M.A. 1976). He worked as assistant curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1963–69); from 1969 to 1974 he was director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; he returned to the Metropolitan as its vice-director of curatorial and educational affairs (1974–78). He became acting director of the museum (1977–78), and then its director (1978).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.