Penelope Hunter-Stiebel

Early life

Born in 1946, Hunter-Stiebel studied at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. She is married to Gerald Stiebel, son of the art dealer Eric Stiebel. The couple live in New Mexico.

Career

Hunter-Stiebel worked as a consultant for the Metropolitan's 20th-century decorative arts collection from the early 1970s to 1983. She has been credited with reviving interest in the Metropolitan's Art Deco holdings by her authorship of an article in the museum's bulletin which drew attention to the collection. In 1979 Hunter-Stiebel was appointed associate curator of the Metropolitan museum's applied art department; she was the first permanent appointment in that department, and collected many objects of post-war design for the museum's holdings. In 1984 the property developer Donald Trump demolished the former Bonwit Teller department store on Fifth Avenue that was known for its exterior decoration. Hunter-Stiebel and the art gallery owner Robert Miller attempted to persuade Trump to donate the sculptural bronze reliefs from the building to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but they were destroyed. Hunter-Stiebel caught a cab to the building site and attempted to pay the workmen for the sculptures, but was rebuffed. Hunter-Stiebel described the sculptures as "irreplaceable architectural documents", and described Trump as "not an esthetic person".

Hunter-Stiebel left the Metropolitan Museum to join her husband and father-in-law at the art dealers Rosenberg & Stiebel, and later returned to cuatorial work for the Portland Art Museum in the 2000s. Hunter-Stiebel left the Portland Museum in 2008; purportedly over a contractual dispute. Hunter-Stiebel curated several exhibitions at the Portland Museum including shows of 18th-century French painting, collections from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, and from the family holdings of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.