biography
| name: |
Blunt, Anthony (Frederick)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1907–83)
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| biography:
| Art historian and Soviet spy, born in Bournemouth, Dorset, S England, UK. In 1926 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a fellow there in 1932. Influenced by Guy Burgess, he acted as a ‘talent-spotter’, supplying to him the names of likely recruits to the Communist cause, and during his war service in British Intelligence with MI5 was in a position to pass on information to the Soviet government. In 1964, after the defection of Kim Philby, a confession was obtained from Blunt in return for immunity from prosecution, and he continued as surveyor of the Queen's pictures, a post he held from 1945 to 1972. His full involvement in espionage was made public only in 1979. A distinguished art historian, he had been director of the Courtauld Institute of Art (1947–74). His knighthood (1956) was annulled in 1979. |
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