Took, Roger

Roger Florian Took (1944 – 29 July 2011) was a British art historian, museum curator, author and convicted child sex offender who lived in London, Ireland, and Russia. In the course of his career, he ran several museums in England, was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a former director of the Barbican Art Gallery. In 1985 he founded Artangel, an institution within the field of contemporary art. In December 2003, his book Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland, described life on Russia's Lapland and Kola Peninsula, and was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. Took was later recognized as an expert on the mediaeval Russian fur trade. In April 2007, Took was arrested for paedophilia-related crimes, and in February 2008 was jailed for a minimum of four and a half years as part of an indeterminate sentence for 17 crimes relating to child abuse.