José María Luzón

Biographies

José María Luzón Nogué

Director from 15 November 1988 to 15 February 1991

After earning his PhD with a thesis on archaeology in the province of Huelva, supervised by his mentor Blanco Freijeiro, José María Luzón directed the excavations at Italica between 1970 and 1976. Salto de línea A corresponding fellow of the German Archaeological Institute and other institutions, he has taught at several universities (Seville, 1968-1970 and 1975, when he helped to create the journal Habis; Santiago de Compostela, 1976-1979 and 1980; La Laguna, 1979; Cádiz, 1983-1988, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in 1984-1986). He combines his teaching activity with research into subjects such as Bronze Age navigation in the Mediterranean. Salto de línea From the moment he was appointed director of the National Archaeological Museum in November 1988, José María Luzón made it his mission to integrate IT systems in the museum and led the institution to participate in international projects like the European Museum Network (EMN). He worked to increase the number of civil servants on staff, organised the museum's former sections into departments, and separated the National Archaeological Museum's archive from the registrar’s office. In February 1991 he was appointed Director-General of Fine Arts and Archives and left his post as director of the museum. From 1994 to 1996 he served as director of the Prado Museum. Salto de línea In 1999 he was made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where he supervised the Cast and Replicas Workshop, and today he combines his activities as delegate fellow of the Academy Museum with his involvement in the master's programme in Mediterranean Archaeology in Classical Antiquity at the Complutense University, where Luzón, a renowned expert on Classical Antiquity, has worked as a professor since 1990. Since 2007, he is also director of the excavation project at the Casa della Diana Arcaizzante in Pompeii.