National Gallery appoints Gabriele Finaldi as director

Current director Nicholas Penny announced he was to step down last summer after six years

National Gallery has appointed Gabriele Finaldi as director (EPA)

The National Gallery has appointed Gabriele Finaldi as its new director, one of the most prestigious jobs on the British cultural scene.

The institution has been on the search for a new director since Nicholas Penny announced he was to step down last summer after six years. It announced Dr Finaldi’s appointment this morning after the Prime Minister gave formal consent.

Dr Finaldi, a British citizen, will take up his post on August 17 returning to the institution where he worked as a curator for a decade until 2002.

The incoming director said he was “deeply honoured” to take the role. “This is a world-class collection in a world-class city.”

While Dr Penny presided over the most successful period in the gallery’s history, the institution is currently in turmoil over proposals from the management to privatise some visitor services roles.

Relations between staff and director sank so low that Dr Penny was booed at one meeting, while in February there was an unprecedented five-day strike.

Dr Finaldi is currently deputy director for collections and research at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, which he joined after leaving the National Gallery.

The 49-year-old was born in London and studied art history at Dulwich College and then the Courtauld Institute of Art.

At the National Gallery he curated exhibitions including Spanish Still Life from Velazquez to Goya, Discovering the Italian Baroque: The Denis Mahon Collection and Orazio Gentileschi at the Court of Charles I.

Mark Getty, chair of trustees at the National Gallery, said: “As co-director of the Prado he has been responsible for a range of successful and complex projects and will bring considerable experience to the gallery.”

Dr Finaldi “contributed decisively to the modernisation of the Museo del Prado in the last decade,” its director Miguel Zugaza said. “At the Prado we hope that his presence in London will give a new impulse to the highly positive collaboration already established between our museum and the gallery.”