The inaugural Malloy Lecture in the Arts was held in September and featured Philippe de Montebello who served as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1977 to 2008. On his retirement, the legendary de Montebello was both the longest-serving director in the institution’s history, and the third longest-serving director of any major art museum in the world.

Born to a French aristocratic family, de Montebello immigrated to the United States in the 1950s and was educated in New York City at the Lycée Français. He then went on to graduate from Harvard with a degree in art history, and earned an MA from New York University, after which he embarked on a career in Fine Arts. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the art world.