Donatien Grau is a philologist, a scholar of the ancient Roman Empire, and the author of Néron en Occident (Gallimard, 2015), La Mémoire numismatique de l’Empire romain (Les Belles Lettres, 2022) and De Civitate Angelorum (Yvon Lambert, 2023).
In his work as a literary thinker, he has published studies such as Tout contre SainteBeuve (Grasset, 2013), Dans la bibliothèque de la vie (Grasset, 2019) and Un Autoportrait (Le Seuil, 2024).
As a collaborator with artists, he has curated dozens of exhibitions and written and edited essays and publications. A leading museum scholar, he is the author of Living Museums (Hatje Cantz, 2020) and Under Discussion. The Encyclopedic Museum (Getty, 2021). He oversaw the transformation of Azzedine Alaïa’s exhibition space into an institution prior to the designer’s passing—Alaïa was a close friend—and was head of contemporary programmes first at the Musée d’Orsay and then at the Louvre.
He is co-founder, editorial director and artistic director of the magazine Alphabet.
