Colleen Ritzau Leth is an art historian, cultural heritage consultant, and board director to several cultural organisations. She is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Sarah Grandin and Dr Tom Stammers at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Institute of Art in London, where her research examines the architectural, site conservation and capital project histories of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles across three transformative decades in the second half of the 20th century.
Colleen’s work traces how the site has functioned as an object of political utility and cultural appropriation from de Gaulle to the creation of the Public Establishment in 1995, drawing on archival study, first-person interviews, architectural analysis, and museological critique. This research builds on Colleen’s BA in Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University, an MA in Art History completed at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts during Philippe de Montebello, Dr Jonathan Brown, and Dr Thomas Crow, where she studied late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century museology and histories of collecting, and an MBA from the University of Oxford, where she was Chair of the Art & Business Network and a 2024 Oxford Cultural Leader.
Colleen’s academic work is directly informed by active engagement with major cultural institutions. Since her appointment by the French Ministry of Culture to the Board of Directors of Château de Versailles in 2021, Colleen has supported international engagement and public-private partnerships and engaged with the institution’s evolving model of internationally-backed capital development. She concurrently serves as Strategic Consultant to AL_A in London, supporting the firm’s competition work with the Musée du Louvre and other museum projects, and has previously advised the Royal Academy of Arts on strategic planning. Earlier in her career, Colleen held roles in International Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sotheby’s, the Cairo Museum, and the National Gallery of Denmark. Colleen’s current work in governance and capital projects has inspired and informed the empirical focus of her research and supported the broader theoretical questions motivating her PhD research.
A published art historian and ICOMOS Research Fellow, Colleen is a frequent speaker on museums, placemaking, and the future of the cultural sector. She is an active member of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ community and enjoys serving on the Architectural Society.