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Met Director Fight!

According to a controversial new book, former Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello didn’t always get along with his predecessor, Thomas Hoving, who stepped down in 1977 — and their clashes were every bit as explosive as you might expect. Says today’s Post:

In “Rogues’ Gallery,” out next month from Broadway Books, Michael Gross writes how in the 70s, Hoving assigned de Montebello, who was then a curatorial assistant, to organize summer shows and write catalogue entries, a task Hoving says was done in an “appalling” manner. “He had a couple of statements in there that Hoving found inappropriate or offensive,” Gross writes. Asked by Hoving to rewrite them, de Montebello did so, but, Hoving tells Gross, “He was kind of stiff about it.”


The Post says it was unable to reach De Montebello for comment, though we shudder to think what might’ve happened if they had.

MET MUSEUM’S CHIEFS AT WAR [NYP]
Earlier: Who’s Snooty Enough to Replace Philippe de Montebello?

Met Director Fight!