Okay, so I'm not qualified, but boy howdy if I was I would be dancing the Irish jig right now and greasing palms and calling in favors all over New York City today. Pilippe de Montebello, the head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the last 30 years announced his retirement today. The eighth, and longest serving director in the museum's 138-year history announced at the Met's board of trustees meeting on Tuesday afternoon that he intended to leave at the end of 2008 or as soon as a successor had been found.
Why is it time to go? The New York Times phoned de Montebello up yesterday and he is quoted as saying, "“After three decades, to stay much further would be to skirt decency,” he said. "This has not been an easy decision — it’s wrenching for me, it’s been my entire life. But it’s time.”
You would have to pry my cold dead body out of that gig.
Okay-de Montebello isn't a saint. He's drawn controversy for not being a big fan of modern art-but that being said he was responsible to acquiring "White Flag" by Jasper John's and placing Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (or the shark floating in formaldehyde to laymen) prominently at the opening of the modern wing of the museum where it will stay for the next three years.
They are big shoes to fill. I sure wish I could fill them. I wouldn't care for all the fundraising and posh boot licking that would have to be done to make the museum a success, but imagine....all that magnificent art at your fingertips. Think of walking through the completely empty museum by yourself and sitting quietly in front of an ancient bust of Akhenaten, spending hours searching through the visual layers of a Pollock or the following the dancing lines of brushwork of a VanGogh. Absolute bliss.
Mr. de Montebello you will be greatly missed.
Why is it time to go? The New York Times phoned de Montebello up yesterday and he is quoted as saying, "“After three decades, to stay much further would be to skirt decency,” he said. "This has not been an easy decision — it’s wrenching for me, it’s been my entire life. But it’s time.”
You would have to pry my cold dead body out of that gig.
Okay-de Montebello isn't a saint. He's drawn controversy for not being a big fan of modern art-but that being said he was responsible to acquiring "White Flag" by Jasper John's and placing Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (or the shark floating in formaldehyde to laymen) prominently at the opening of the modern wing of the museum where it will stay for the next three years.
They are big shoes to fill. I sure wish I could fill them. I wouldn't care for all the fundraising and posh boot licking that would have to be done to make the museum a success, but imagine....all that magnificent art at your fingertips. Think of walking through the completely empty museum by yourself and sitting quietly in front of an ancient bust of Akhenaten, spending hours searching through the visual layers of a Pollock or the following the dancing lines of brushwork of a VanGogh. Absolute bliss.
Mr. de Montebello you will be greatly missed.
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