Putney Vale Cemetery and Crematorium, London, England
Alma mater
Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)
Art historian, professor, writer, spy
Awards
KCVO, revoked in 1979 on the grounds of treason
Espionage activity
Allegiance
Soviet Union
Codenames
Tony[1]
Johnson[2]
Yan[3]
Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983),[4] styled Sir Anthony BluntKCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy.
Blunt was a professor of art history at the University of London, the director of the Courtauld Institute of Art and Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. His 1967 monograph on the French Baroque painter Nicolas Poussin is still widely regarded as a watershed book in art history.[5] His teaching text and reference work Art and Architecture in France 1500–1700, first published in 1953, reached its fifth edition (in a version slightly revised by Richard Beresford) in 1999, at which time it was still considered the best account of the subject.[6]
In 1964, after being offered immunity from prosecution, Blunt confessed to having been a spy for the Soviet Union. He was considered to be the "fourth man" of the Cambridge Five, a group of Cambridge-educated spies who worked for the Soviet Union from some time in the 1930s to at least the early 1950s.[7] He was the fourth member of the group to be discovered; the fifth, John Cairncross, was yet to be revealed. The height of Blunt's espionage activity was during World War II, when he passed to the Soviets intelligence about Wehrmacht plans that the British government had decided to withhold from its ally. His confession—a closely guarded secret for years—was revealed publicly by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1979. He was stripped of his knighthood immediately thereafter. Blunt had already been exposed in print by historian Andrew Boyle earlier that year.
^Carter 2001, p. 180.
^Carter 2001, p. 302.
^Carter 2001, p. 319.
^GRO Register of Deaths: Mar 1983 15 2186 Westminster – Anthony Frederick Blunt, DoB = 26 September 1907; Varriano 1996.
^Shone, Richard and Stonard, John-Paul, eds. The Books that Shaped Art History, Introduction. London: Thames & Hudson, 2013.
^Hopkins, Andrew (2000). "Review of Art and Architecture in France 1500–1700 by Anthony Blunt, Richard Beresford", The Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 31, no. 2 (Summer), pp. 633–635. JSTOR 2671729.
^"Blunt, Prof. Anthony (Frederick), (26 Sept. 1907 – 26 March 1983), Professor of the History of Art, University of London, and Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, 1947–September 1974; Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, 1952–72 (of the Pictures of King George VI, 1945–52); Adviser for the Queen's Pictures and Drawings, 1972–78". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u162133. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir AnthonyBlunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian...
Following Philby's flight, British intelligence obtained confessions from AnthonyBlunt (1907–1983, codename Johnson) and then John Cairncross (1913–1995, codename...
Emily Olivia Laura Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and two...
New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-517390-3. Carter, Miranda (2001). AnthonyBlunt: His Lives. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-10531-0...
include the unmasking of the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, Sir AnthonyBlunt as a Soviet spy, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath's respective terms as...
Runners (1983), A Passage to India (1984), and Comrades (1986). He played AnthonyBlunt in the BBC play by Alan Bennett, A Question of Attribution (1992). He...
quartet of the Cambridge Five Soviet spies, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, AnthonyBlunt and Donald Maclean, who whilst studying at the University of Cambridge...
basketball player Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr., American general and diplomat AnthonyBlunt, British art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Vanden Borre...
Murders, Waking the Dead and Poirot, as well as one-off dramas. He played AnthonyBlunt in Cambridge Spies, a BBC production about the four British spies, starring...
share their upper-middle-class backgrounds or tastes. Although he knew AnthonyBlunt at Cambridge, Guy Burgess socially (and had a dislike of both of them)...
James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount; 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He has released seven albums since 2004 and has...
centred around interviews with AnthonyBlunt at that time, and Wright had amassed a sizable amount of taped evidence from Blunt when Martin returned from suspension...
Hollis Stephen Kunken as James Jesus Angleton Nicholas Rowe as Sir AnthonyBlunt Thomas Arnold as Guy Burgess Monika Gossmann as Galina Karel Roden as...
It focuses on the British art expert and former Soviet agent, Sir AnthonyBlunt. It was premiered at the National Theatre, London, on 1 December 1988...
first book was a biography of the art historian and spy AnthonyBlunt, entitled AnthonyBlunt: His Lives. It won the Royal Society of Literature Award...
career in the SIS. Philby, along with Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, AnthonyBlunt, and John Cairncross, was part of a group of Soviet moles in Britain...
recorded in Lunéville between 1639 and 1642, and may have traveled again; AnthonyBlunt detected the influence of Gerrit van Honthorst in his paintings after...
Cambridge Five AnthonyBlunt Guy Burgess John Cairncross Donald Maclean Kim Philby Portland Spy Ring Lona Cohen Morris Cohen Ethel Gee Harry Houghton...
Cambridge Five AnthonyBlunt Guy Burgess John Cairncross Donald Maclean Kim Philby Portland Spy Ring Lona Cohen Morris Cohen Ethel Gee Harry Houghton...
met AnthonyBlunt, four years his senior and a Trinity postgraduate. The two shared artistic interests and became friends, possibly lovers. Blunt was...
Global Information
Soviet Union