News: Met's De Montebello Says `Time Is Right' to Retire (Update1)

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for three decades, said today that ``the time is right'' for him to retire because ``society and the world change faster than people in positions like mine.''

A search committee chaired by Annette de la Renta will meet for the first time today to discuss possible successors, James Houghton, chairman of the museum's Board of Trustees said at a press conference. Committee members include Shelby White, who, along with her late husband, Leon Levy, donated $20 million for the museum's new Greek and Roman galleries, and board members Cynthia Polsky and Robert Joffe, a partner at New York law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore.

Museums are facing challenges ranging from escalating art prices, which hinder them from expanding their collections, to instability in the financial markets that may affect donations.

``The Met is a huge ship and it's not going to turn like a little yacht,'' de Montebello, 71, told Bloomberg television after the conference. ``We are not going to do U-turns in policies, but one must adapt to a changing society.''

Van Eyck Favorite

Asked by Bloomberg News at the conference which objects he would take home from the museum if he could, de Montebello picked Jan van Eyck's painting of the crucifixion of Christ, which dates from around 1430, and Jean Antoine Watteau's early 18th century ``Mezzetin,'' which shows a commedia dell'arte musician strumming a guitar.

``This place is just so full of wonderful things. I could go on and on,'' he said.

The committee will use a search firm to ``sort out the chaff'' before picking a successor, who ``should be a serious art scholar with administrative ability,'' Houghton said in an interview after the conference in the museum's Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education.

Candidates range from James Cuno, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, to Museum of Modern Art Director Glenn D. Lowry and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, according to reports by Bloomberg and other news organizations.

``I hope the search committee will also take a careful look at talented staff inside,'' said Lisa Dennison, former director of the Guggenheim Museum, who is now with auction house Sotheby's. Emily Rafferty, the museum's president, and Gary Tinterow, one of the curators, should be candidates, Dennison said in a telephone interview today.

Looted Objects

De Montebello almost doubled the museum's size with the addition of new wings and gallery space for European sculpture, 20th-century art and classical antiquities.

``His commitment to the proper display of the museum's permanent collection made him a paradigm for me,'' Dennison said.

De Montebello said he would remain until the end of 2008, or until his successor is found.

The museum's eighth and longest-serving director, de Montebello joined as a curatorial assistant in 1963 and rose through the ranks to become director in 1977. The French-born, American-educated art historian increased attendance from 3.5 million that year, to more than 5.1 million in 2000, before it dipped after Sept. 11, 2001.

About 4.6 million people visited the museum in the year ended June 2007, making it New York's biggest tourist attraction.

De Montebello's time coincided with the recent attempts by governments in Greece and Italy to recover artifacts they say were looted. The museum's prize Greek vase, the Euphronios krater, was one of the items he agreed to return in protracted negotiations with the Italian government.

Looking Forward

He was also involved in the museum's fundraising efforts. Late last year, the museum's capital campaign, guided by trustee emeritus E. John Rosenwald Jr., exceeded $1 billion, the largest in the institution's history, the museum said.

In 2006, de Montebello earned $4.7 million, the highest reported compensation among executives at U.S. nonprofit institutions, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy survey. His compensation jumped from $533,462 in 2005 because of a one- time $4 million payment to mark his 30 years as head of the U.S.'s largest art institution.

Among the most recent expansions de Montebello oversaw was a $218 million project to double the space for works of classical antiquity. The new Greek and Roman galleries drew 4,000 visitors a day in the seven months after opening in April 2007, the museum said last month.

De Montebello said there would be time later to add up his failures and successes. ``I am of a disposition that looks forward, that tends to be optimistic,'' he said.

News

9 Январь 2008 г.

Met's De Montebello Says `Time Is Right' to Retire (Update1)

0 коммент.:

Архив блога