Philippe de Montebello is the eighth Director of the Metropolitan. He became Acting Director in July 1977, and Director in May 1978. With the exception of his four-and-a-half years as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (1969-1974), Mr. de Montebello has spent his entire professional career at the Metropolitan, joining its staff as curatorial assistant in 1963, rising to Associate Curator in the Department of European Paintings, and eventually to the post of Vice Director for Curatorial and Educational Affairs. Under his leadership as Director, the museum has expanded, reinstalled, and republished much of its permanent collection. Among his recent initiatives are the reinstallation of the galleries for 19th-century European paintings and sculpture, the conservation and installation of the Gubbio Studiolo, the opening of the Antonio Ratti Center for Textile Conservation, and the opening of the new Chinese Galleries for paintings and decorative arts and the Howard Gilman Gallery for Photographs. Mr. de Montebello is now supervising the complete reconstruction and reinstallation of the classical collection in space so vast that when open to the public, the collection will constitute the largest museum of Greek and Roman art in the Western Hemisphere.

Under Mr. de Montebello's leadership, the Museum has also organized hundreds of critically acclaimed special exhibitions, most recently and prominently, The Glory of Byzantium and The Private Collection of Edgar Degas.