About the BGC

Special Exhibitions Curator. Dissertation on the well-known Parisian cabinet-maker Bernard Molitor. Currently Associate Curator for the Furniture Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire. Curator of the refurbishment project of the Residence of the German Ambassador at Hôtel Beauharnais in Paris. Dr. Leben also studied at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, and the Freie Universität Berlin, specializing in the history of Western decorative arts and object design. In addition to his academic knowledge of the history of furniture, Dr. Leben gained hands-on experience of the trade as an apprentice to a cabinetmaker in his hometown in Germany. He lectures widely at such institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum, Bard Graduate Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Oak Foundation, National Trust, and Christie’s Education, among others. He is now Associate Professor of the Masters Program in the History of the Decorative Arts at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and lecturer at the Ecole du Louvre. Dr. Leben has written extensively on furniture design and cabinet making, a subject that he has also explored in several museum exhibitions. In 2004 he published his book Object Design in the Age of Enlightenment.