Stephen Deuchar is to become the new director of the Art Fund, reports Bloomberg. Deuchar, fifty-two, is director of Tate Britain and chairman of the 2009 Turner Prize jury. He will take up his new post on January 4.

“Stephen Deuchar will bring a wealth of expertise,” David Verey, chairman of the Art Fund, said in the release. Deuchar succeeds David Barrie, who stepped down at the end of May after seventeen years.

Deuchar, who has a doctorate in art history from the University of London, spent twelve years as a curator and exhibitions director at London’s National Maritime Museum. He was appointed to the Tate in 1998 and oversaw the creation of Tate Britain in 2000 at Millbank, home of the original Tate Gallery.

He led last year’s campaign to a secure for Britain a Rubens sketch, after $9.32 million was raised for it. Deuchar also worked with the Art Fund on the campaign to acquire Turner’s The Blue Rigi in 2007.

Since 1903, the Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, has helped museums and galleries secure 860,000 works for their collections. It offers grants of about thirteen million dollars a year. The fund, backed by private donations, has eight thousand members and campaigns on behalf of museums and their visitors.