LONDON.- Stephen Deuchar was awarded the honour for his service to the public as former director of Tate Britain from 1998 until 2009. He joined the Art Fund as director in January 2010.

On receiving the award, Stephen Deuchar said: "It's a great honour and I'm delighted. I feel privileged to have worked at Tate Britain amongst so many inspirational colleagues."

During this time at Tate, Stephen oversaw the creation of Tate Britain in 2000 at Millbank, home of the original Tate Gallery, and the opening of its Centenary Development galleries in 2001. During his leadership, Tate Britain acquired an outstanding international reputation and increased its visitor figures by 60%.

Stephen collaborated with the Art Fund with several major acquisitions during his time at Tate. In 2008 he oversaw Tate’s campaign to secure Rubens’s Sketch for the Banqueting House Ceiling, towards which the Art Fund contributed £600,000. He also worked closely with the Art Fund when it ran a successful appeal to save Turner’s Blue Rigi for Tate in 2007.

Prior to working at Tate Stephen served 12 years as a curator and exhibitions director at the National Maritime Museum.

On starting his new role as director of the UK’s leading independent art charity he said: "My own instinct is to return to the core principles, in providing a service for others. I want to listen to what the galleries and museum curators have to say."

During his first weeks of leadership at the Art Fund, Stephen oversaw the charity’s successful Staffordshire Hoard campaign to save the £3.3m Anglo-Saxon treasures for the West Midlands. The Hoard – comprising over 1,500 items, mainly gold and many encrusted with jewels – was unearthed in a field near Staffordshire in 2009 and declared the most valuable treasure ever found on UK soil. It is now jointly owned by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.