Neil MacGregor
Art historian and museum director
Neil MacGregor is a British art historian and former museum director who led the National Gallery and the British Museum.
1 summary 23 min of listening
British Born 1946 in Glasgow, United Kingdom
About Neil MacGregor
Neil MacGregor was born in Glasgow in 1946. He studied modern languages at Oxford, and later studied law and then art history. He edited the Burlington Magazine, then directed the National Gallery in London from 1987 to 2002. He went on to direct the British Museum until 2015. He then led the newly created Humboldt Forum in Berlin, staying until 2018. In 2010 he presented a BBC Radio 4 and World Service series, A History of the World in 100 Objects, drawing on the British Museum's collection. He also wrote Shakespeare's Restless World: An Unexpected History in Twenty Objects. He has also made a BBC Radio 4 series and a British Museum exhibition about Germany, and his book Germany is in our catalog.