Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, will be giving a talk at the Maritime Museum next Saturday 24 November.

Mr MacGregor has held this position since 2002. He is credited with “...not only transforming the public’s view of what the British Museum is for, but also the view of the politicians.” (Guardian Unlimited Arts interview, May 2007). Recently, the BBC produced a ten-week series on The Museum.

He began his career as a lecturer in art history and architecture at Reading University, served as Editor of Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, and then took the position of Director at the National Gallery, where he served until 2002. During his directorship at the National Gallery, he presented two BBC television series on art: Making Masterpieces, a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Gallery, in 1997, and Seeing Salvation, on the representation of Jesus in western art, in 2000.

Mr MacGregor is a member of the International Advisory Board of Hermitage Museum, a Board member of the National Theatre, an honorary Fellow of New College Oxford, and has received honorary doctorates from nine universities. He was educated at New College Oxford, where he received an M.A. in languages; École Normale Supérieure, Paris; and Edinburgh University where he studied law. Mr MacGregor also received an M.A. from Courtauld Institute of Art in London.