{{Short description|American art historian}} thumb|right|Milo C. Beach in 1986 '''Milo Cleveland Beach''' is an American art historian and the former director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art.
Beach is a historian of Indian art, specifically Indian painting.<ref name=SIA1/><ref name=NYTA>{{cite news|title=Director at Sackler and Freer Named|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/24/arts/director-at-sackler-and-freer-named.html|accessdate=11 May 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 October 1988}}</ref> He graduated from Harvard College and credits the music of Ravi Shankar for garnering his interest in Indian culture. Before earning his Ph.D. at Harvard, he was already a curator at the Fogg Art Museum and Boston Museum of Fine Arts.<ref name=Richard/> He is an authority on Mughal painting of the Akbar to Shah Jahan periods and has published important catalogues on the subject including ''The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600-1660'' (Williamstown, 1978), now a classic in its field.[https://books.google.com/books?id=cw7rAAAAMAAJ]
He served as the chair of the art department at Williams College.<ref name=SIA2 /> He became director of the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1987.<ref name=SIA1>{{cite web|title=Milo C. Beach|url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_9909|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives|accessdate=10 May 2012}}</ref><ref name=SIA2>{{cite web|title=Beach to Head Sackler Gallery|url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_2183|work=Record Unit 371, Box 4, "The Torch," April 1984, p. 1|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives|accessdate=11 May 2012}}</ref> He supervised the opening of the Sackler Gallery and acquired loans for the opening exhibitions from the government of China, the Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, Emperor Shōwa, the Topkapi Museum, and the Hermitage Museum. A $26 million renovation of the Freer also took place during his tenure.<ref name=Richard>{{cite news|last=Richard|first=Paul|title=Sackler, Freer Director To Retire; Milo Beach to Return To Art Scholarship|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-413973.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904012153/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-413973.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 September 2017|accessdate=11 May 2012|newspaper=Washington Post|date=20 March 2011}}</ref> Beach curated numerous exhibitions, including the collection of painter Howard Hodgkin, Japanese pop art, the art of Hiroshima Kazuo, and contemporary pottery.<ref name=Richard/>
In 1993, Beach published his research on the British Royal Collection's 17th-century manuscript of the ''Padshahnama''. The Royal Librarian described the publication as the "best catalogue ever produced for an exhibition from Windsor Castle."<ref name=Richard/> In October, 2001, Beach retired as the director of both the Sackler and the Freer Gallery of Art. Beach returned to research, specifically focusing on the work of the Mughal Empire.<ref name=Richard/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beach, Milo C.}} Category:Living people Category:American art historians Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Historians of India Category:Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Category:Smithsonian Institution people Category:American art curators Category:Year of birth missing (living people)