Gaston Brière (1871-1962)

Head Curator at the Palace of Versailles (1871-1962)

Attached to the National Museum of Versailles from 1903 to 1918, Gaston Brière was appointed deputy curator in 1920 and subsequently served as head curator from 1933 to 1938.

Full name
Gaston Brière

Profession
Conservation officer at the National Museum of Versailles from 1903 to 1918
Deputy Curator from 1920 to 1933
Head Curator of the Palace of Versailles 1933 - 1939

Predecessor
André Pératé

Conservation officer at the National Museum of Versailles from 1903 to 1918, Gaston Brière was appointed deputy curator in 1920 and subsequently served as head curator from 1933 to 1938.

A professor at the Ecole du Louvre, Brière was a respected art historian with a high profile in French museum circles.

Gaston Brière
© Archives of the Palace of Versailles

Despite officially retiring in 1938, from the Autumn of 1939 to the Spring of 1946 he took charge of the depot established at the Château de Brissac, where a considerable proportion of the palace’s collections was transferred for safekeeping during the Second World War.