Alexis Gregory

Alexis Gregory was born in Switzerland of Russian parents, was educated in the United States, graduating in art history magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1957. He is the founder and owner of The Vendome Press, a book publishing house with a special commitment to the fine arts, music, architecture and culture in general. He was co-publisher of the Journal of Art, serves as a member of Sotheby’s Advisory Board and is on the Visiting Committee of Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fogg Museum. His private foundation is devoted to the fine arts and music. He served for three years as Chairman of the American Friends of the Israel Museum.

He has written several books on travel and the gilded age and has written for many magazines including The Journal of Art, Art and Auction, Vanity Fair, Condé-Nast Traveler, Travel Holiday, Town and Country and Air France Madame. His last books are The Golden Age of Travel, Families of Fortune, and Paris de Luxe on the Place Vendôme. His book on Venice is being published this Spring.

Mr. Gregory has built a major collection of Italian Renaissance bronzes, collects French and Italian old master pictures of the 17th and 18th centuries as well as French 18th and 19th century paintings. He is Chevalier of France’s highest civilian decoration, the Legion d’Honneur, is an officer of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and a Cavalliere al’Merito della Reppublica Italiana. The last decoration was given in recognition of his services to the Italian publishing industry.

He founded the Vendome Prize in 2000, a European piano competition described by Le Figaro as the most prestigious in the world, supports several particularly talented musicians and serves on several boards of classical music institutions in the U.S.A. and abroad.

He lives in New York City and Paris, and has a winter home in Montego Bay, Jamaica.