Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and History (majoring in History of Art) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1987.
He is currently the Director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a trustee of Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado, and a member and full academician of Jakiunde, the Basque Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
He was the founder and Director of Ikeder (1986-1994) –a pioneering cultural services company in the Basque Country–, Deputy Director-General of Conservation at the Reina Sofía National Art Centre Museum in Madrid (1994-1996) –where he actively participated in the remodeling of the permanent collection exhibition–, Director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (1996-2002) and Director of the Prado Museum (2002-2017).
In recognition of his career, he has received various awards and distinctions, such as the decoration of merit in the degree of Cavaliere Ufficiale of the Italian Republic (2005), the appointment as Knight in the National Order of Merit of the French Republic (2006), Consul of Bilbao at the proposal of the Chamber of Commerce of the city (2011), the Grand Cross of the Order of the Second of May (2012), the state decoration Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation (2013), the Roots of Europe Award (2015), the Cross of Honor 1st Class of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Austria (2016) and the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (2017) and he is awarded the Sorolla Medal of the Hispanic Society of America (2017).