Botwinick Named Newport Museum Director

NEWPORT BEACH — Michael Botwinick, 47, a former director of the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has been named director of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, the museum announced.

The appointment, made 14 months after the departure of former director Kevin Consey, was approved by the museum’s board Thursday night.

In 1987, Botwinick joined the staff of Knoedler-Modarco, S.A., the parent company of the distinguished gallery M. Knoedler & Co. and the more middlebrow Hammer Galleries, both in New York. Knoedler-Modarco was largely owned by the late Armand Hammer, who was also a Corcoran trustee. As senior vice president, Botwinick oversaw Knoedler’s historical painting division.

Most recently, he has been handling business investments in the art field for the Pritzker family of financiers in Chicago as an employee of Fine Art Group, L.P., in Buffalo Grove, Ill., holding company for the Chicago-based Merrill Chase Galleries.