Irene Roosevelt Aitken has been elected an Honorary Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman. The election took place at the September 12 meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Mrs. Aitken is the widow of Russell Barnett Aitken, who was also an Honorary Trustee of the Metropolitan and a member of the Arms and Armor Visiting Committee. The department's Russell B. Aitken Gallery recognizes Mr. Aitken's generosity. Mrs. Aitken continues to serve on the Arms and Armor Visiting Committee.
"We are pleased to recognize Irene Aitken for her long history of involvement in, and commitment to, the Metropolitan Museum," commented Mr. Houghton in announcing the election. "Many curatorial departments have benefited from her generosity through her participation in visiting committees or friends groups, through the gift of works of art, and also through funds in support of acquisitions and the renovation of galleries."
Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan, added: "Even within an encyclopedic Museum such as the Met, Irene's enthusiastic support for areas as diverse as the Arms and Armor Department, the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and The American Wing – over a span of more than two decades – has been exemplary."
Mrs. Aitken was closely associated with the Annie Laurie Aitken Charitable Trust, which funded the renovation and reinstallation of the Annie Laurie Aitken Galleries for English furniture and decorative arts and created an endowment for its continued maintenance. She also generously supported The Fund for the Met capital campaign.
Mrs. Aitken's personal collection includes an impressive array of 18th-century French and English furniture and decorative arts, about which she is very passionate. She and her husband also amassed a significant collection of arms and armor, an area of Mr. Aitken's interest in which Mrs. Aitken continues to collect.
Outside the Metropolitan, Mrs. Aitken has been a supporter of the Wildlife Conservation Society; the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; the Cleveland Institute of Art; the Preservation Society of Newport, Rhode Island; The Metropolitan Opera; The American Associates of the Royal Academy; Bard Graduate Center for the Decorative Arts; the Wallace Collection; and the Frick Collection, where she is a member of their Council as well as many other organizations.
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September 12, 2006
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