Ulrich Leben is currently the Special Exhibitions Curator at the BGC where is working on projects related to Georges Hoentschel and Charles Percier. Dr. Leben studied at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris, and the Freie Universität Berlin, specializing in the history of Western decorative arts and object design, writing his dissertation on the well-known Parisian cabinet-maker Bernard Molitor. He is also Associate Curator for the Furniture Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire and Curator of the refurbishment project of the Residence of the German Ambassador at Hôtel Beauharnais in Paris. 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.