Diana Magaloni

Dr. Diana Magaloni has led a versatile career as museum leader, art historian, author, curator, and conservator. As Deputy Director at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , she leads an innovative mentoring and curatorial program as the Head Curator of the Department of Art of the Ancient Americas and serves as Director of the museum’s Conservation Center. The work that she and her team do with indigenous communities, artists and countries of origin have served to implement museum's best practices and involvement with the public, and has been documented in film. Her books and exhibitions have won awards for excellence. Before moving to Los Angeles, she was Director of the National Museum of Anthropology—Mexico’s internationally well-respected national museum. Due to her vision and abilities as public speaker she was a successful fundraiser. She worked as a researcher and professor at the National University of Mexico. Her research has been characterized by innovation, collaborating with artists, scholars and scientists in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Her unique approach combines art history with scientific analysis of works of art, a method that has influenced many in the field. She inspires audiences with her storytelling bridging the gap between academia and the general public; she was a speaker in National Geographic Live with sold out performances across the US. She has published extensively, including the books Colors of the New World: Materials, Artists, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex (2014) At LACMA, she has curated numerous exhibitions, including Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time (2017), which received the 2018 Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators; The Portable Universe, Thought and Splendor of Indigenous Colombia (2022), the catalogue for which was awarded the Alfred H. Barr Award by the College Art Association; and We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art (2024).