FASHION

Following Philippe

Back in June, when I interviewed Phillipe de Montebello, the outgoing director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (September's "Out of the Picture") he professed not to have any inside information on the search for...

by Jenny Comita

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Back in June, when I interviewed Phillipe de Montebello, the outgoing director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (September’s “Out of the Picture”) he professed not to have any inside information on the search for his successor. “I don’t even know the names of the people on the list,” he told me. “And I really don’t want to.”

It sounds like the museum’s search committee followed his advice. Yesterday, the Met chose Thomas P. Campbell, a 46-year-old British-born tapestries curator, to succeed de Montebello as director and chief executive. Campbell, who’s never managed a large department, was a bit of a dark horse candidate. But he does have a history of surpassing expectations. In 2002, his “Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence” exhibition, which was expected to be one of those intellectual, “difficult” shows, ended up being a blockbuster, attracting upwards of 200,000 visitors. Whether he’ll be able to pull off that sort of magic as the man in charge remains to be seen.

Photo by Lee Clower