Receiving line of Frick Trustee Chairman (and Benefit Chairman) Margot Bogert, Director Anne L. Poulet, Benefit Chairman Agnes Gund, honoree Philippe de Montebello, and Benefit J. Tomilson Hill and Janine Hill.  Photo: Mary Hilliard

On Monday, October 19, 2009, The Frick Collection hosted its annual Autumn Dinner.

This year's dinner honored Philippe de Montebello.  He is one of the world’s most influential and widely admired cultural leaders and was the longest-serving director in the history of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Benefit Chairmen were Margot and Jerry Bogert, Agnes Gund, and J. Tomilson Hill. 

During his thirty one year tenure, the institution’s collections and programs flourished: the museum acquired significant collections and individual masterpieces, mounted acclaimed international loan exhibitions, developed wide-reaching educational programs, vastly increased its exhibition space, and reinstalled much of its permanent collection in new or refurbished galleries. Last fall, the curators of the institution paid tribute to Mr. de Montebello by mounting an unprecedented exhibition of some 300 major works that entered the collection under his leadership, The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions. 

Philippe de Montebello was born in Paris and received his early education in France. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received a master’s degree in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.  With the exception of four and a half years as director of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, he spent his entire career at the Met.  

In 2008, Mr. de Montebello joined the board of trustees of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and became the first scholar in residence at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. This fall he became the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and a special adviser for NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus. He serves as special adviser to the Leon Levy Foundation, and, with Paula Zahn, is co-host of WNET/Channel 13’s weekly culture series SundayArts.  He continues to lecture throughout the world on art, museums, and other cultural matters.

Mr. de Montebello has long been a champion of public access for the arts and for institutional integrity.  His numerous international honors include the Officier de la Légion d’Honneur; the Amigos del Museo del Prado Prize; and Knight Commander, Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great.  In 2003 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by George W. Bush. 

The Frick Collection paid tribute to this consummate museum director whose vision and dedication to the field will continue to inspire the next generation of museum professionals.

Nearly 250 attended, and over $975,000 was raised in support of The Frick Collection.