NY Times on the Reign of Count de Montebello

Philippe de Montebello is the last of a breed. Who can succeed him at the Met?

So reads the teaser on the front page of the arts section of today's NY Times online.

But Charles McGrath's valedictory (for tomorrow's "Arts & Leisure" section but online now) for a very active director who's not ready for his valedictory, says almost nothing about who might succeed Philippe. That's reserved for the last two paragraphs, which come almost straight out of CultureGrrl.

McGrath writes:

Mr. de Montebello's successor is a topic endlessly gossiped about in the museum world. Among the names most frequently mentioned are Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum in London; Timothy Potts, who will step down in September as director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and later take over at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England; and William M. Griswold, currently the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, who is to become the head of the Morgan Library and Museum next year.

James R. Houghton, the chairman of the Met's trustees, keeps a list in his desk drawer of people who might take Mr. de Montebello's place. "It's in case Philippe gets hit by a bus," he explained recently.

CultureGrrl readers may think that they've heard about those names and about Houghton's little list before...because they have (here and here).