MMA's de Montebello Soon to Retire
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Accomplished Director to Leave Post
Philippe de Montebello, Director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for over 30 years, announced his retirement on January 8, 2008.
After more than 30 years of distinguished service, Philippe de Montebello, 71, announced on January 8, 2008 his intention to retire as Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art by the year's end or when his successor has been appointed. A trustees search committee has already been assembled.
Education and Honors
Mr. de Montebello holds a master's degree in art history from New York University's world-renowned Institute of Fine Arts and honorary doctorates from Harvard University, N.Y.U. and five American colleges. He is the distinguished recipient of numerous international honors, among them Officier de la Légion d'Honneur (1991); the Blérancourt Prize for contributions to the cultural bond between France and America (2002); the National Medal of Arts from the President of the United States (2003); the Amigos del Museo del Prado Prize (2004); and the Mayor of New York's Award for Arts and Culture (2007).
Career
Philippe de Montebello began his career at The Metropolitan Museum as a curatorial assistant in the Department of European Paintings (1963-1969). After four-and-one-half years as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1969-1974), he returned to The Met as its Vice Director for Curatorial and Educational Affairs in 1974, assumed the position of Director in 1977 and also became the museum's Chief Executive Officer in 1998.
Expansion and Refinement
Under the debonair and charismatic Mr. de Montebello's aegis, the 2-million-square-foot museum embarked on an impressive course of expansion externally and internally as well as a rigorous program of collection reinstallation and object acquisition. Additions to New York's premier cultural institution include the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing for 20th-century art (1987) and the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court (1990).
Major enhancements to the permanent collection were completed in 2007 during de Montebello's tenure:
- the 57,000-square-foot Greek and Roman Galleries;
- the 25,000-square-foot Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education;
- renovated galleries for Oceanic and Native American art;
- refurbishment of the Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts; and
- expansion and re-design of the 19th- and Early 20th-century European paintings and sculpture galleries.
Additionally, the intarsia Italian Renaissance studiolo of Duke Federico da Montefeltro from Gubbio was reinstalled after extensive conservation (1996). The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries for Byzantine art were inaugurated (2000). The Cloisters' Campin Room was extensively renovated (2007). And colossal Egyptian statuary was installed in the Sackler Wing housing the Temple of Dendur, the only structure of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The reconstruction and expansion of the American Wing and reinstallation of the Islamic art collection are projects already underway.
Notable acquisitions abound as a result of Mr. de Montebello's astute leadership: Portrait of a Young Woman by Johannes Vermeer (1979); the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection of European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts (1982); the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings (1991); Wheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh (1993); White Flag by Jasper Johns (1998); Madonna and Child by Duccio di Buoninsegna (2004); and the Gilman Paper Company Collection of 19th-century French, British and American photographs (2005), to name a few.
Special Exhibitions
De Montebello's deep commitment to making world art accessible and intelligible to the public and scholars resulted in a comprehensive array of special exhibitions, among them:
- Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall -- An Artist's Country Estate (2006-2007);
- Thomas Eakins (2002);
- Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (2003);
- Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries (1999);
- Treasures of Ancient Nigeria (1980), Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island (2001-2002) and Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings (2006);
- The Great Bronze Age of China (1980);
- Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century (2004);
- Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman (2003);
- Egyptian Age in the Age of the Pyramids (1999-2000);
- Vermeer and the Delft School (2001) and Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting (2003);
- The Horses of San Marco (1980) and The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art (1983);
- Greek Gold: Jewelry of the Classical World (1994);
- Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797 (2007);
- Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (2003-2004);
- The Vikings (1980), The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis in the Time of Abbot Suger (1122-1151) (1981) and The Glory of Byzantium (1997);
- Surrealism: Desire Unbound (2002) and Robert Rauschenberg: Combines (2005-2006);
- Franz Liszt's Grand Piano (2001-2002); and
- Richard Avedon: Portraits (2002-2003).
Under Philippe de Montebello's direction, the museum's scientific, conservation and technological facilities have been modernized. And The Met has become the United States' preeminent publisher of award-winning art books. Needless to say, he has positioned The Metropolitan Museum of Art to address the needs of its audience well into the 21st Century.
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