René Huyghe studied philosophy and aesthetics at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre. Made a curator of the Louvre's department of paintings in 1930, he rose to chief curator and professor of the école du Louvre in 1936, at the age of 30. He founded and edited the reviews L’Amour de l’Art and Quadrige. He was one of the first figures in France to make films on art, such as his Rubens (winner of a prize at the Venice Biennale), and founded the International Federation of Films on Art.
In 1974, Huyghe was made director of the Musée Jacquemart-André. It was at this time that he first met the Japanese philosopher Daisaku Ikeda with whom he published a dialogue titled Dawn After Dark. The book was re-released in 2007 by the London-based publishing house I.B. Tauris.
He was the creator of television shows about art abroad, but failed to realize his television projects, always refused by French broadcasting officials. With the victory of the socialist party candidate at the presidential election in May 1981, he was declared persona non grata for French television.[4]
Huyghe was president of UNESCO's international committee of experts for saving Venice and served on the Conseil artistique des Musées de France.