Anthony Blunt – Book Notes

November 26, 2009

Anthony Blunt

1930 – Ring of spies known as the Cambridge Five – Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt

1944 – Tomas Harris introduced Anthony Blunt to Garbo over dinner once at Garibaldi’s Restaurant in Jermyn Street.

1945 – Tommy and his wife regularly entertained youthful wealthy university graduates, Anthony Blunt the Art historian from the MI5 B1(b), Guy Burgess, David Liddell and Victor Rothschild also from MI5, and Dick Brooman-White, Kim Philby, Tim Milne and Pete Wilson from SIS – MI6’s Special Research team.

1945 – Post War- Blunt had worked at the Courtauld Institute in London before the war and returned there after the war ended . David Liddell became a successful artist, Victor Rothschild became a scientist, Brooman-White was elected a Conservative member of Parliament, Peter Wilson became chairman of Sotheby’s, Burgess went from the BBC into the Foreign Office and later defected to Russia…

1956 – Blunt was Knighted in 1956

1960 – Blunt was awarded an honorary fellowship at Trinity College

1975 – Anthony Blunt who had recently retired as Director of the Courtauld Institute wrote an introduction to an exhibition of Tomas’s Art at the Courtault Institute Galleries which gave a brief mention of Garbo in the Biography.

1978 – Anthony Blunt’s role as a Soviet agent was exposed – albeit under a false name in 1979 and he was publicly named by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the same year. Queen Elizabeth II stripped Blunt of his knighthood, and he was removed as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College

1981/May – Anthony Blunt interviewed by Nigel West (co author of Garbo) – 18 months earlier Blunt a distinguished Art historian at the Courtauld institute had been exposed publicly as a Soviet Spy and had been stripped of his knighthood and fellowship at Trinity.

Blunt – Wiki link was a Warburg Institute professor; director of the Courtauld Institute and professor at the University of London, before and after the war. He specialised in French and Italian Art. Enriqueta Harris (specialised in Spanish Art) had also worked at the Courtauld Institute so I suspect there is a good chance that they knew each other, especially as they both had connections to MI5.