Philippe de Montebello retires as director of the Metropolitan Museum

According to the Association of Art Museum Directors, a New York-based nonprofit representing more than 180 museum directors, 21 U.S. museums will be looking for successors of the postwar generation of directors. With diminishing federal and corporate funding, the job descriptions of the top position at museums might be intimidating curators at one side, where others leave for better paid jobs at auction houses.

“At the Met, Mr. Montebello’s successor will need to be able to wax rhapsodic with curators about hieroglyphics and Damien Hirst as well as manage a staff of 2,600, a $201 million operating budget and a $1 billion capital campaign.”

Read full article (Washington Post, January 10, 2008)