Tina Ambani was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts on Friday. 

Known as a powerful advocate for contemporary and traditional artists in India, hers is the first international appointment to the museum board. 

Ambani, a former actor, is married to industrialist Anil Ambani.

PEM is the oldest continually-operating museum in the US and the second-largest in New England.

Image: Tina Ambani, founder and patron of Harmony Art Foundation, at Christie's auction house in London. | Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images