Peter Lasko

Peter Erik Lasko (5 March 1924 – 18 May 2003)

Life Lasko was born and grew up in Berlin, where his father Leo Lasko worked in the film industry as a director and screenwriter. The family moved to England in 1936. then at the Courtauld Institute of Art from 1946 to 1949. In 1950 he became assistant keeper in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities at the British Museum, where he remained for 15 years. While he was at the Courtauld he donated photographs to the Conway Library whose archive of primarily architectural photographs are being digitised as part of the wider Courtald Connects project.

Following his retirement from the Courtauld he devoted much of his time to the "Corpus Of Romanesque Sculpture In Great Britain And Northern Ireland", a project he took over from George Zarnecki, and a book on German Expressionist art, and in 1981 was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was also made a fellow of The British Academy. A festschrift in his honour, Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture : presented to Peter Lasko, was published in 1994.

Work at public institutions British Museum - member of board of trustees, 1980–95 Royal Armouries - trustee, 1983–91 Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England - member, 1984–90 Cathedrals Fabric Commission - member, 1984–96 American University of London - academic governor of Richmond College, 1988–2001

Having become a fan while he was at UEA, Lasko continued to be a supporter of Norwich City Football Club. He was survived by his wife Lyn, who he married in 1948,

Publications

The Kingdom of the Franks: North-west Europe Before Charlemagne, London : Thames and Hudson, 1971, Ars Sacra: 800-1200, New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, 1994. Previous ed.: London: Penguin, 1972, Medieval Art in East Anglia, 1300-1520, ed. N. J. Morgan, London : Thames and Hudson, 1973, The Painting Collections of the Courtauld Institute of Art, 1979 Two Ivory Kings in the British Museum and the Norman Conquest, Newcastle upon Tyne : University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1983, Wells Cathedral west front. Construction, sculpture and conservation by Jerry Sampson, Foreword H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Preface Peter Lasko, Stroud : Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1998, The Expressionist Roots of Modernism, Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2003,