William "Willy" Mostyn-Owen (10 May 1929 – 2 May 2011) was a British

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. He worked for some years with the art expert

Bernard Berenson Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large h ...

, and was his

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

. He was connected with the auctioneers

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

for 30 years.

Early life

William Mostyn-Owen was born on 10 May 1929 to Lt-Col Roger Arthur Mostyn-Owen (1888-1947) and wife Margaret Eva Dewhurst. The Mostyn-Owen family were military

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...

of Woodhouse,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. He had three older brothers and a sister. His brothers all died during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and his father died while William was in his teens, so that he inherited the family seat of Woodhouse and the Dewhurst family's

Aberuchill Castle Aberuchill Castle is located west of Comrie in Perthshire, Scotland. It comprises an early 17th-century tower house, which was extended and remodelled in the 19th century. The house, excluding the later west wing, is protected as a category A lis ...

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

, at a young age. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

Career

After his graduation, Mostyn-Owen worked for the

Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

at Harvard and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City. In the 1950s, he spent six years working closely with

, the art expert, at his

Villa I Tatti Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and ...

near Florence, and acquired a deep understanding of the art of the Italian Renaissance. In Florence, the British consul commented that Mostyn-Owen was "worth a battleship" for his charm and tact when dealing with American President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

, the

King of Norway The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty kingdoms ...

Haakon VII Haakon VII (; born Prince Carl of Denmark; 3 August 187221 September 1957) was the King of Norway from November 1905 until his death in September 1957. Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen as the son of the future Frederick VI ...

and other visiting dignitaries. He joined the auction house

in London, alongside

David Carritt Hugh David Graham Carritt (15 April 1927 – 3 August 1982) was a British art historian, dealer and critic, who was described by ''The New York Times'' as being "responsible for more sensational discoveries in the field of Old Master painting sin ...

, Noel Annesley, and

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as " ...

, and worked there for almost thirty years. He became a director in 1968, and chairman of Christie's Education from 1979 to 1988.

Personal life

Mostyn-Owen's first wife from 28 September 1960 to 1989 was the Italian writer

Gaia Servadio Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer. Early life and career Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi. Her father was Jewish and ...

, with whom he had three children, Owen (b. 1962), Allegra (b. 1964) and Orlando (b. 1973). In 1968, they were living in a single wing of

which consisted of "23 rooms or so". His second wife was Faith Clark, and his third was Jane Martineau, also an art historian, whom he married in 1992. His daughter Allegra, an art teacher, was the first wife of the politician

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

. His son Orlando is an artist and a painter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mostyn-Owen, William 1929 births 2011 deaths Christie's people Writers from Shropshire People from Perthshire People educated at Eton College Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge British art historians