ONE of Canberra’s brightest and best has been appointed as director of the Art Gallery of NSW.

Dr Michael Brand, 54, presently the director of the Aga Khan Museum under construction in Toronto, was formerly the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, assistant director of the Queensland Art Gallery and founding head of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia.

A brilliant first class honours graduate from the ANU, where he graduated in 1979 specialising in Art History and Asian Studies, Brand went on to complete an MA and a PhD at Harvard in 1982 and 1987, focusing on the history of art in the Indian subcontinent, especially Pakistan.

The world’s (and now Sydney’s gain) is Canberra’s loss. Back in 1996 he applied unsuccessfully for the directorship of the NGA, afterwards setting off on a brilliant international career.

In 2010, after serving four or five contracted years as the director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Brand stepped down from his role over differences of opinion over the museum’s strategic vision with James N. Wood, president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell this week said: “The appointment will provide the Gallery with opportunities to build upon NSW’s strong artistic tradition, innovative approach to art and culture and my Government’s goal of making NSW Australia’s premier destination for art, culture and innovation.”

The president of the Board of Trustees of the AGNSW, Steven Lowy, said he was delighted the Gallery had been able to recruit such an outstanding director whose scholarship and reputation was well recognised globally.

Brand, though widely expected to take the directorship of the Aga Khan Museum, is known to have been keen to return to Australia with his wife and daughters and said he was very excited about his new role.

He will be the ninth director of the AGNSW in its 120-year history and will assume his new role mid-year after finalising his consultancy with the Aga Khan Museum, which is currently constructing a $150 million building designed by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki.

Brand currently serves on the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Art Museum and the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. He is a past member of the Governing Board of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.