Sir Charles Robert Saumarez Smith CBE (born 28 May 1954) is a British cultural historian specialising in the history of art, design and architecture.
In 1982, Saumarez Smith was appointed by Sir Roy Strong as an Assistant Keeper at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he helped to establish the V&A/RCA MA Course in the History of Design and was a contributor to The New Museology, published in 1989.
He also presided over the building of an extension to the NPG in 2000, the Ondaatje Wing, designed by Sir Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones.
However, few other major acquisitions were made by the National Gallery under Saumarez Smith due to the inflated prices commanded for Old Master paintings.
[8] At the same, time it became known that Saumarez Smith was applying for the newly created post of Secretary and Chief Executive at the Royal Academy.
[9] In his time at the Royal Academy, Saumarez Smith was responsible for restoring the Keeper's House to its former glory and the development of plans for 6 Burlington Gardens, a Grade II*-listed building designed by Sir James Pennethorne immediately north of the Royal Academy, including the appointment of the architect Sir David Chipperfield.
[10] In 2014 Saumarez Smith appointed White Cube exhibition curator and broadcaster Tim Marlow as the first Director of Artistic Programmes.
[11] Saumarez Smith is a former Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London,[12] a Trustee of Charleston and the Royal Drawing School, an enthusiastic blogger, and in the past an occasional panellist on the BBC's Newsnight Review.