Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE is the new Director of the British Museum. As Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2015 to 2024, he oversaw the largest transformation of the Gallery since its building opened in 1896. Prior to this, he was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and from 2007 to 2013, Curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern. Cullinan received his BA, MA and PhD in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. In 2006–7, he held the Hilla Rebay International Fellowship at the Guggenheim museums in Bilbao, New York and Venice.