Franklin named director of Cleveland Museum of Art

[August 27, 2010]  CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Cleveland Museum of Art has hired a new director.

He's David Franklin, the deputy director of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. He replaces Deborah Gribbon, who became interim director last year when Timothy Rub left to take the top job at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Franklin is an Italian Renaissance and baroque art scholar. He has lived and worked in his native Canada and in London, Oxford and Rome.

The appointment of the 49-year-old Franklin was announced Thursday night. It comes as the Cleveland museum heads into the final three years of a $350 million renovation and expansion.

The museum says its collection contains more than 30,000 artworks spanning thousands of years.

[Associated Press; By THOMAS J. SHEERAN]

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