Michael Brand

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This article is about an Australian art scholar. For the Hungarian composer, see Mihaly Mosonyi. For the current member of the German Bundestag, see Michael Brand (politician).

Dr Michael Brand during his time at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Dr Michael Brand (born 1958) is an art scholar from Australia and director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Throughout his career, Brand has specialised in the art of Asia, in particular Indian art.

Dr Brand was born in Canberra, but spent several years in the United States of America while his father was a representative at the International Monetary Fund. He lived in McLean, Virginia in 1971 and 1972, and spent four years studying in Washington, D.C. to complete High School. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Australian National University in 1979, and attained an MA and PhD at Harvard University in 1982 and 1987 respectively.

After completing his studies, Dr Brand worked as the founding head of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia and in 1996 unsuccessfully applied for the directorship there[1]. He left for the Queensland Art Gallery later that year, and spent four years working as assistant director. In 2000 he moved to Richmond, Virginia to succeed Katherine C. Lee as director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

In August 2005 Dr Brand was appointed director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, refuting speculation[2] that he may have accepted the post of director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he would once again have been following in Lee's footsteps. Brand took up the rôle of director in January 2006, and has since had a rocky time running the museum, as allegations surfaced that Brand's predecessor and other museum staff were involved in illegally purchasing Italian artefacts from tomb-robbers.