Alan Shestack, Influential Museum Director And Art History Scholar, Dies At 81

BOSTON (JTA) — Alan Shestack, an influential American museum director and art history scholar, has died.

His decades-long career included top leadership roles at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Yale University Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Art.

Shestack died earlier this month at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 81.

He had multiple medical issues, according to Mervin Richard, his executor. Richard told the Boston Globe that there is no indication that his friend’s death was related to COVID-19.

Shestack spent some 20 years at the Yale University Art Gallery, rising quickly from assistant curator to director of the prestigious institution.