Former Christie's specialist Richard Aste has been named as the new Curator of European Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

Currently, he is Associate Curator at Museo de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and working on the reinstallation of thirteen permanent collection galleries. Aste has organized several European art exhibitions there including Masterpieces of Spanish Painting from the Prado and The Journey to Impressionism. He co-curated The Age of Rodin and Masterpieces of European Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Prior to the position in Ponce, Peru-born Aste was a specialist at Christie’s in Old Master Paintings and Old Master Drawings, and held positions at Wildenstein & Co., Inc. and Robert Simon Fine Art, Inc.

An art historian with broad experience working with European painting, sculpture, and works on paper, Aste has Master’s degrees from Hunter College and CUNY Graduate School and University Center, where he is pursuing a PhD.

The Brooklyn Museum’s European art collection includes Old Master and modern paintings by such artists as Nardo di Cione, Davide Ghirlandaio, Frans Hals, Francisco de Goya, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, as well as sculptures that include an important collection of works by Auguste Rodin.