Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for three decades, has announced his retirement; he’ll be leaving as soon as a successor is found. The 71-year-old French born Harvard graduate called it a “wrenching” decision but finally concluded that “to stay much further would be to skirt decency.”
During de Montebello’s tenure the Met has greatly expanded its proportions, adding elegant new wings while steadily refurbishing down-at-heel areas, acquired prize collections such as the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, and staged blockbuster exhibits like “Van Gogh in Arles” that attracted a wider base to the institution.
The outgoing director has also had his share of criticism, for a perceived snobbery toward contemporary art and a refusal to return many of the Met’s archaeological treasures alleged to have been acquired through looting. (In 2006 he did agree to turn over 21 Greek and Roman artifacts looted from Italian soil, in a swap for some loans to the Met of “similar value”.) But despite his own gripes over the years, Michael Kimmelman, the Times’s chief art critic, struck a conciliatory tone after the news broke:
Say what you will about all the Chanel shows or the cheesy trinkets in the stores or the banal wings. I’ve said it myself. But after 30 years of his leadership, the Met that Mr. de Montebello passes on to the 21st century is simply one of the nation’s grandest achievements.
Some fun factoids about de Montebello’s tenure to impress your date:
- Annual attendance at the Met grew by 1.1 million during his 30-year tenure.
- The museum is the city’s biggest tourist attraction.
