Courtauld alumnus Dr. Nicholas Cullinan appointed as Director of The British Museum

We are delighted to report the appointment of alumnus Dr. Nicholas Cullinan OBE (BA 2002, MA 2003, PhD 2010) as the new Director of The British Museum.

Nicholas Cullinan is an art historian, curator and current Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, a position he has held since 2015. He completed his BA, MA and PhD at The Courtauld and his PhD thesis, The Archaeology of Knowledge: Excavating Arte Povera, was supervised by Professor Sarah Wilson. During his student days Nicholas worked as a visitor services assistant at the National Portrait Gallery, little knowing that he would later become its director, aged just 37. Nicholas was responsible for leading the £35.5m transformation of the gallery, which reopened in June 2023 to critical acclaim. He received a well-deserved OBE this year for his services to Art.

Prior to taking the helm at the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas worked in some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the world, including the Guggenheim museums in Bilbao, New York and Venice, Tate Modern and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

We wish Nicholas every success in his new role.