WASHINGTON — The founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian spent more than $250,000 in institution funds in the past four years on first-class transportation and plush lodging in hotels around the world, including more than a dozen trips to Paris.

In that time, W. Richard West Jr. was away from Washington for 576 days on trips that included speaking engagements, fund-raising, and work for other nonprofit groups, according to a review of travel vouchers for Mr. West’s trips obtained by the Washington Post. Mr. West’s travel often took him far from American Indian culture: Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand; Athens, Greece; Bali, Indonesia; Sydney and Brisbane, Australia; London; Singapore; Florence, Rome, and Venice, Italy; Paris; Gothenburg, Sweden; Seville, Spain; Seoul, South Korea; Vienna, Austria; and Zagreb, Croatia.

At the time, top Smithsonian officials were allowed unlimited leave with pay. “At all times,” Mr. West said, “my travel authorizations and reimbursements, and their direct connection to NMAI and Smithsonian business, were reviewed and approved fully by my supervisors.”

Smithsonian officials have been under scrutiny since earlier this year following revelations about spending abuses by then-Secretary Lawrence Small. An independent panel sharply criticized Mr. Small and Sheila Burke, his top deputy, for taking too much time away from the office.

Mr. Small and Ms. Burke were Mr. West’s supervisors. The unlimited-leave policy was changed after the Small scandal. Mr. Small resigned in March and Ms. Burke left in September.

Mr. West has been in charge of museum staff since 1989, when he was hired to oversee planning for the flagship museum. He also supervised the opening of the George Gustav Heye Center in New York five years later and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland five years after that. In September 2004, Mr. West oversaw the opening of the Indian Museum, which covers Native American life and culture from the borders of Canada through South America.

Mr. West, a 64-year-old Harvard-trained historian and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, has raised $155 million in private funds, which helped pay for the museum’s construction and the Suitland, Md. facility.

Much of Mr. West’s travel occurred in conjunction with service on outside boards. He served as chairman of the board of the American Association of Museums from 1998 to 2000 and is a vice president of the International Council of Museums. He is also a trustee at Stanford University, where he earned a law degree in 1971, and serves on the board at the Ford Foundation.

Both Stanford and Ford pay for board members’ travel, but Mr. West said he billed the Smithsonian for parts of some of those trips because he worked on museum business while traveling. “Rick was rarely at the museum,” said Ann Ruttle, a budget official at the museum from 2003 to 2006, and prior to that at the Smithsonian’s main offices, where she worked extensively with institutional travel records. “I believe Rick had the most travel of any museum director.”

Mr. West, who is retiring, remains on the payroll until the end of the year. He is on the search committee interviewing candidates to replace Small.

Many of his four dozen trips to New York were attributed to business related to the American Indian Museum’s galleries at the Heye Center in Manhattan. Expenses for the New York trips often ran more than $1,000 a night. On one occasion last year he stayed in a $559-a-night room at the W Hotel, and on another he billed the Smithsonian for a $286 meal with filmmaker and photographer Gwendolen Cates during which most of the tab went for alcoholic beverages, including a $75 bottle of Italian wine. Mr. West’s total compensation as of 2004 was $292,000 a year, according to the institution’s tax returns. His former law partner and longtime friend Kevin Gover, a former Clinton administration appointee, took over as head of the museum on December 3 after Mr. West supported his appointment.

The travel disclosures have come in a year in which Congress and its investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, have criticized the Smithsonian for permitting a $2.5 billion backlog of physical-plant projects to accumulate, including leaks in the museum’s Suitland, Md., facility.

Late this year, a series of Smithsonian-sponsored farewell events were held to honor Mr. West, including staff lunches in Washington and New York, cocktail receptions in Washington and Los Angeles, and a gala dinner at the museum in September on its third anniversary. The total cost:$124,000, according to figures provided by the Smithsonian.