| Advisors' Biographies |
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| Theft of the Mona Lisa Jean-Pierre Cuzin is the Head Curator of the Department of Painting at the Louvre Museum and Director of French National Museums. He is a specialist in French painting of the 17th to 19th centuries and the relationship between French and Italian painting. Cuzin has mounted numerous exhibitions, for which he also wrote the accompanying catalogues, including: Les Caravagesques Francais (Rome, Paris, 1973-74), Raphael and French Art (Paris, 1983), and Fragonard and Hubert Robert in Italy (Rome, 1990-91). In 1993 he oversaw the exhibition, To Create, To Copy: From Turner to Picasso - 300 Works Inspired by the Masters of the Louvre, on the occasion of the Louvre's bicentenary. He was also the co-director of the exhibition of Georgs de la Tour at the Grand Palais in 1997. His books include Raphael (1983), Fragonard (1987) and La Tour (1997). Seymour V. Reit is the author of The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa (1981), which was nominated for the Edgar Award for "Best Fact Crime Book" that year. He has also written Masquerade: The Amazing Camouflage Deceptions of World War II and many prize-winning books for children. An animator and graphic artist, Seymour Reit is perhaps best known as the creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Guernica: Testimony of War Patricia Failing is Associate Professor of Criticism and Contemporary Art at the University of Washington, where she has also served as Chair of the Division of Art History. She teaches courses on a wide variety of subjects including Modernism and Post Modernism, Futurism, Surrealism, Legal and Ethical Issues in the Visual Arts, Abstract Expressionism, Visual Arts Criticism, Feminist Criticism and Art History, and Concepts of Reality in Art. Failing has contributed nearly one hundred articles and essays for various publications and journals on Art History and Criticism. Since 1976, she has been a Contributing Editor for Art News Magazine, for which she wrote "Picasso's Cries of Children, Cries of Stones" (1988). Tomas Llorens is the Director and Head Curator at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, and instructor in the Department of Art History and Architecture at the University of Gerona. Previously, he served as Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, which houses Picasso's Guernica, and the Instituto Valenclano de Arte Moderno in Valencia. Llorens has authored, co-authored and edited numerous books including: Miguel Angel (1994), Guide to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (1993), Spain: Artistic Vanguard and Social Reality (1977), and Meaning and Behaviour in the Built Environment (1975). The Fabergé Eggs: Mementos of a Doomed Dynasty Christopher Forbes is Vice Chairman of Forbes Inc. He is the son of Malcolm S. Forbes and worked closely with his father in the development of the renowned Forbes Magazine Collection of Fabergé on display at The Forbes Magazine Galleries in New York City. Géza von Habsburg is one of the world's leading authorities on Fabergé. He has served as Guest Curator and organizer for several major Fabergé exhibitions, including Fabergé in America, which originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fabergé, Imperial Court Jeweler, originating at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg; and Court Jeweler to the Czars out of Munich. An expert in gold boxes, jewelry, early European porcelain and the stained glass windows of Florence, Dr. Von Habsburg was Chairman of Christie's Switzerland, and then European Operations from 1968 through 1984. He has lectured and written extensively on the art of the Russian jeweler. Included among his publications are: Fabergé in America (1996), Fabergé: Imperial Jeweler (1994), and Carl Fabergé (1994). Lynette G. Proler is a specialist in antique jewelry and a recognized authority on the work of Carl Fabergé. Her book, The Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs (1997), co-authored with Valentin Skurlov and Tatiana Fabergé, is an outstanding contribution to the body of literature on the subject. She has written and lectured extensively on the work of Fabergé and has assisted many leading collectors in the acquisition of Fabergé works. Proler has been involved in several museum exhibitions, including The World of Fabergé: Russian Gems and Jewels, Houston, Texas (1994), and Fabergé: Goldsmith of the Tsars, Stockholm (1997). The Notorious Hope Diamond Sarah Booth Conroy, social columnist for the Washington Post, writes the weekly Chronicles column for the Post's 'Style' section. The first woman graduate of the University of Tennessee Knoxville School of Journalism, Conroy has covered Presidents and interviewed Queens. She has also written for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the Washington Daily News and the New York Times. Married to foreign service officer Richard Conroy, the Conroys lived in Switzerland, Austria, and Belize before returning to Washington, DC. History plays a central role in Chronicles, especially as it relates to current affairs. Her interests in architecture and history inspired Conroy's first novel, Refinements of Love. Colonial history provides the context for her work in progress, a novel about Martha Washington. Jeffrey E. Post is the Curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC. Previously, he was Chairman of the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, having joined the Department in 1984 after working as a Research Fellow at the Department of Geological Sciences at Harvard University. For the past ten years, Dr. Post has been the Head Curator for the development of the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, which opened at the Smithsonian in 1997. Post also collaborated on the publication, The National Gem Collection (1997). Taj Mahal: Memorial to Love Milo C. Beach, a scholar of the painting of India, is the Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Together, these two Smithsonian organizations form the national museums of Asian art for the United States. Dr. Beach's specialty is the art, history and culture of India, with an emphasis on Indian painting of the Mughal period (1526-1858). He is the co-author of King of the World: Padshahnama, an Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (1997). The book was released to accompany the first public presentation of the Windsor Castle Padshahnama manuscript in an exhibition organized by Dr. Beach, which toured the U.S., England and India. He has written and co-authored numerous books on the subject including: Mughal and Rajput Painting (1992), Art of the Persian Courts (1992), Indian Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Howard Hodgkin (1991) and Early Mughal Painting (1987). Dr. Beach has lived and studied extensively in India and has served as a curator at the Walters Art Gallery in Balitimore and Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum. He is a frequent contributor to journals and symposia and has lectured at universities, museums and other institutions around the world. Shobita Punja is an author and recognized expert in the fields of Ancient Indian Art and Architecture. She is presently chief consultant for a major collaborative project with architects, geologists and scientists from four research institutes in India, working on the reconstruction of Khajuraho - one of the few surviving ancient temple complexes in North India and the site of many world famous sculptures. Dr. Punja has written many distinguished books including: Khajuraho and Benares (1990), Divine Ecstasy: the Story of Khajuraho (1992), Daughters of the Ocean: Discovering the Goddess Within (1996), This is India (Time-Life, 1996). Borobudur: Pathway to Enlightenment Jan Fontein, born in the Netherlands, studied Far Eastern languages and Southeast Asian archaeology at Leiden University. After ten years as a Curator at the Museum of Asiatic Art in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Dr. Fontein moved to the United States, where he was Curator, and later, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. There he organized such exhibitions as Zen Painting and Calligraphy (1970) and Unearthing China's Past (1972). Other exhibitions include: The Sculpture of Indonesia (1990) for the National Gallery in Washington, DC; China's Distant Past (1994); and Buddha Images from the Kingdom of Siam (1995) for the Foundation Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. He has published numerous scholarly articles on these life-long interests and has taught at Harvard University, the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, and at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is a correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary degrees from Boston University, Northeastern University and Simmons College in Boston. |
