MET Hires Head of Provenance Research
March 25 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have announced that they have hired Lucian Simmons for a newly created role as Head of Provenance Research. Lucian has been the worldwide head of restitution at Sotheby's for a great deal of time, having started at the company back in 1997.
According to the article linked above:
In a telephone interview, Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive, said the volume of materials an auction house must review gave Simmons the background necessary to take on a review of the Met’s encyclopedic collection.
“He has a vast amount of experience understanding the level of research you need to apply and what timelines you need to set to get to a result,” Hollein said. “He probably had to deal with more issues at Sotheby’s than have many other institutions. You have to vet and scrutinize a huge number of objects. He’s someone who understands the theory but who also has a very practical attitude.”
Here's a video of Lucian describing a painting by Fernand Léger back in 2020.
