Xavier Dectot, born on in

Pithiviers Pithiviers () is a commune in the Loiret department, north central France. It is one of the subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, England and Burglengenfeld in Bavaria, Germany. Its attractions incl ...

, is a French museum curator and art historian. A former curator at the

Musée de Cluny The Musée de Cluny ("Cluny Museum", ), also known as Musée national du Moyen Âge – Thermes et hôtel de Cluny ("National Museum of the Middle Ages – Cluny thermal baths and mansion"), is a museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, Fr ...

, specialising in sculptures and ivories from the Middle Ages, he has been director of the

Louvre-Lens The Louvre-Lens is an art museum located in Lens, France, approximately 200 kilometers north of Paris. It displays objects from the collections of the Musée du Louvre that are lent to the gallery on a medium- or long-term basis. The Louvre-Lens ...

from 2011 to 2016 and Keeper of Art and Design at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

from 2016 to 2019. Since 2019, he is the director of the Lusail Museum in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

Biography

Education

He studied in the École des chartes, from which he graduated in 1998 with a thesis titled ''La Mort en Champagne : étude de l’art funéraire aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles''), in the Institut national du patrimoine, where he entered in 1997, but only graduated in 2001 as he interrupted his studies to complete his PhD, at the

Casa de Velázquez The ''Casa de Velázquez'' is a French school in Spain modelled on the Villa Médicis in Rome, and Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algeria.''75 aniversario de la Casa de Velázquez. Memoria gráfica 1928-2003'', Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2006, 182 p. - ac ...

(from 1998 to 2000) and at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

(where he obtained his PhD on medieval funerary art in 2001).

Career

Professor at the

École du Louvre The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy. Admission is ...

, he started his curatorial career in the

in 2001, in charge of ivories and sculptures, and extensively published the latter collection in paper and online catalogues. On , he was appointed as the founding director of the

museum. In 2016, he left that position to become Keeper of Art and Design at

. In 2019, he joined Qatar Museums as director of the Orientalist Museum, since then renamed Lusail Museum.

Works

* ''Art ou politique, Arcs, statues et colonnes de Paris'' (avec Geneviève Bresc-Bautier), Action artistique de la ville de Paris, 1999 * ''L'Art roman en France'', musée du Louvre-Hazan, 2004 * ''Catalogne romane, sculptures du val de Boí'' (avec Jordi Camps), RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2004 * ''Sculptures des XIe-XIIe siècles, roman et premier art gothique'', RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2005 * ''Pierres tombales médiévales, sculptures de l'au-delà'', Remparts, 2006 * ''Céramiques hispaniques, XIIe-XVIIIe siècles'', RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2008 * ''Reflets d'or, d'orient en occident : la céramique lustrée, IXe-XVe siècle'', RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2008 * ''Les Tombeaux des familles royales de la péninsule ibérique au Moyen Âge'', Brepols, 2009 * ''Paris, Ville rayonnante'' (avec Meredith Cohen), RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2010 *
Sculptures du XIIIe siècle, collections du musée de Cluny
', RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2010 * ''D'or et de feu : l'art en Slovaquie à la fin du Moyen Âge'' (avec Dušan Buran et Jean-Christophe Ton-That), RMN-Musée national du Moyen Âge, 2010 * ''À la table de l'histoire, recettes revisitées, des banquets antiques à aujourd'hui'' (with Marion Godfroy), Flammarion, 2011

Biography

Education

Career

Works

Notes and references

Annexes

See also