Nathalie Bondil


Nathalie Bondil is a French and Canadian art historian and curator. She has served as director general and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts since 2007. Bondil joined the museum in 1999 and is the first woman to be the museum's director. In 2019, she was awarded the Legion of Honour.

Biography

Nathalie Bondil holds a degree in art history from the École du Louvre. She successfully passed the entry examination for the École nationale du Patrimoine de Paris in 1994, then graduated in 1996, thereby becoming Conservateur du patrimoine d'État.
From 1996 to 1998, she worked at the Musée des Monuments Français as curator in charge of museography for the galleries dedicated to the 17th to 20th centuries, as part of the museum's renovation.
In 1999, she was hired as curator for European art from 1800 to 1945, and in 2000, promoted to chief curator, taking charge of the Curatorial Department, Conservation, the Library, Archives, Publishing and Exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She was the Director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from 2007 to July 2020. Nathalie Bondil was fired following years of allegations of a “toxic” work environment:
As part of the Board’s proposed fix for this difficult climate of alleged harassment and bullying, they proposed to separate the role of director from that of chief curator - separation which is a typical convention in most large museums. Bondil attempted to circumvent the Board selection process for this new role with her own process. The dispute over the ultimate nomination of Mary-Dailey Desmarais, the member of one of the museum's largest donor families, to the position of curator in chief was the final disagreement. Mary-Dailey Desmarais came only fourth in the of the parallel, “Bondil” hiring process, raising suspicion of nepotism over her appointment.
Nathalie Roy, the Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications, brought her full support to Nathalie Bondil and ordered and independent inquiry on her dismissal.