Philippe de Montebello is a Membre de l’Institut de France and Director Emeritus, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was its longest-serving director (thirty-one years) at his 2008 retirement. Mr. de Montebello became the first scholar in residence at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and he launched a new academic career as the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, until 2025.


In 2008 Mr. de Montebello was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Musée d Orsay in Paris for a four year term, and in 2012 he was elected Honorary Trustee of the Prado Museum in Madrid. In 2014 he was elected to the French Académie des Beaux Arts. In 2015 he was elected Chairman of the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, where he is now Chairman Emeritus.


In 2003 President G.W. Bush awarded Mr. de Montebello the National Medal of the Arts, and in 2009, President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of the Humanities. Mr. de Montebello is only the fourth person to have received both of these awards.