Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt (
September 26,
1907 -
March 26 1983) was an English art historian and the "Fourth Man" of the
Cambridge Five, a group of
spies working for the
Soviet Union during the
Cold War. He was born in
Bournemouth, where his father had been a vicar. He studied at
Trinity College, Cambridge, graduated in
1930, and became a teacher of French. He became a Fellow of the college in
1932. He was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret society which at that time was
Marxist, formed from members of Cambridge University. After visiting Russia in
1933, he was recruited by the
NKVD (forerunner of the
KGB) in
1934. He joined the British army in 1939 and in
1940 was recruited to
MI5, the military intelligence department, where he had access to
Ultra intelligence from decoded
Enigma messages. After the war he became director of the Courtauld Institute of Art (1947-1974). In
1945 he became Surveyor of the King's Pictures, and retained the post under
Queen Elizabeth II, for which work he was knighted in
1956. He retained the post until
1972. He was particularly knowledgeable on the works of
Nicolas Poussin.
MI5 learned of his espionage in 1963 from an American, Michael Straight, whom he had unsuccessfully tried to recruit. Blunt confessed to MI5 on April 23, 1964, but his spying career remained an official secret until he was publicly named by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979. His knighthood was immediately revoked, followed by his honorary fellowship of Trinity College. According to MI5 papers released in 2002, the organization was told by writer Lady Moura Budberg in 1950 that Blunt was a member of the Communist Party, but the information was ignored.
Publications
- François Mansart and the Origins of French Classical Architecture, A. Blunt
- Baroque and Rococo Architecture and Decoration, A. Blunt
- Borromini, A. Blunt
- Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700 (1953), R. Beresford, A. Blunt
- "Roman Baroque architecture: the other side of the medal" in Art history, 1/1980, A. Blunt, p. 61 - 80, includes bibliographical references.
- "Rubens and architecture" in Burlington magazine, 1977,894, A. Blunt, p. 609 - 621
Bibliography
- Andrew Boyle, The Climate of Treason (1979)
- Alan Bennett, A Question of Attribution (play)
- Miranda Carter, Anthony Blunt: His Lives, Pan (UK), ISBN 0330367668
- Michael Straight, After Long Silence, the Man Who Exposed Anthony Blunt Tells for the First Time the Story of the Cambridge Spy Network from the Inside, London Collins 1983, ISBN 0002170019
External Links