LONDON â€" Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford for the last 16 years, announced his retirement on Wednesday. He plans to leave the museum at the end of September 2014, take a year off and then become a research professor at Oxford for three years where he will focus on the study of van Dyck and Rembrandt. In 2016, the Ashmolean will present a Rembrandt exhibition organized by him.
During his tenure Mr. Brown has overseen a $98.2-million renovation and expansion that attracted international attention. Attendance during his time at the museum has risen to more than a million visitors a year from 100,000.
