| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xii, 545 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [491]-528) and index. |
| Contents |
Archaeologist : Luigi Palma di Cesnola, 1870-1904 -- Capitalist : J. Pierpont Morgan, 1904-1912 -- Philanthropist : John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1912-1938 -- Catalyst : Robert Moses, 1938-1960 -- Exhibitionist : Thomas P.F. Hoving, 1960-1977 -- Arrivistes : Jane and Annette Engelhard, 1974-2009. |
| Summary |
Covers the entire 138-year history of the Met, focusing on the museum?s most colorful characters. Opening with the lame-duck director Philippe de Montebello, the museum?s longest-serving leader who finally stepped down in 2008, Rogues? Gallery then goes back to the very beginning, highlighting, among many others: the first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-born epic phony, whose legacy is a trove of plundered ancient relics, some of which remain on display today; John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest capitalist and art collector of his day; John D. Rockefeller Jr., who never served the Met in any official capacity but who, during the Great Depression, proved the only man willing and rich enough to be its benefactor; the controversial Thomas Hoving, whose tenure as director during the sixties and seventies revolutionized museums around the world but left the Met in chaos; and Jane Engelhard and Annette de la Renta, a mother-daughter trustee tag team whose stories will astonish. |
| Subject |
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) -- History.
|
|
Art museums -- New York (State) -- History.
|
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Art -- Collectors and collecting -- United States -- Biography.
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| ISBN |
9780767924887 |
|
0767924886 |
|
