Sylvain Bellenger is Director General of EDI – Education Integration Global Forum. An art historian specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painting, he served as Director General of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples (2015–2024). As Ingalls Curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, he led the Department of European and American Painting and Sculpture. At the Art Institute of Chicago, as Searle Chair and curator, he directed the Department of European Art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. He also served as Director of the Château and Museums of Blois. Over the course of a long international career, he has conceived and organized major exhibitions in Europe, the United States, and Asia, accompanied by scholarly catalogues. Author of numerous critical essays and specialist articles on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painting, sculpture, and architecture, he contributes to the development of contemporary museological thought, emphasizing the museum’s role as an inclusive public space and an instrument of cultural citizenship.

• Knight of the Legion of Honor, France — 2006.

• Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, France — 2002.

• Commander of the Constantinian Order of Saint George — 2023.

• Capo d'Orlando Award – Cultural Management Section, Vico Equense — 2021.

• Honorary Citizenship of the City of Naples — 2023. Recognition awarded by the City of Naples for his work leading the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte and for his contribution to the international prestige of Neapolitan artistic heritage.