Victoria Siddall, art fair supremo, goes to London’s National Portrait Gallery

Victoria Siddall, formally the global director of the Frieze art fairs, is to direct the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Until recently a trustee of the organisation, Siddall takes over from Nicholas Cullinan, who now now heads the British Museum. The chairman of the National Portrait Gallery’s board, David Ross, said of Siddall: ‘Her strengths as a cultural leader are considerable.’

Siddall, who will be the first woman to lead the 168-year-old institution, launched Frieze Masters for the art fair brand, before being promoted to oversee its art fairs in London, New York and Los Angeles. She resigned after 18 years just prior to the launch of Frieze Seoul. Until January she was the chair of the board at Studio Voltaire and in 2020 she cofounded the Climate Change Coalition of arts organisations.

With regional outposts at Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire and Montacute House in Somerset, as well as its Trafalgar Square base, the National Portrait Gallery is directly funded by the UK government. Siddall’s appointment will be formally approved by the Prime Minister.

Tasked with documenting those, both famous and non-famous, who ‘shape a nation’, among its most recent acquisitions is a painting by Pierre et Gilles of chart-topping pop singer Sam Smith.