A morning of departures

On the death of Philadelphia Museum of Art director Anne d'Harnoncourt:

• Peter Dobrin's Inquirer obituary. The story reveals that d'Harnoncourt was not offered the Met job soon-to-be vacated by Philippe de Montebello.;
• Three writers collaborate on the Daily News' obit;
  
• William Grimes' obit in the NYT, which is the only one of the bunch that mentions that d'Harnoncourt and the PMA went to court (and won) in an effort to integrate European paintings from the John G. Johnson collection into the PMA's holdings. (The Johnson bequest had laid down guidelines on the display of the collection, PMA wanted them eliminated.) It's a key point because it presages Philadelphia's attack on the Barnes Foundation. It's not clear to me how the Philly papers left this out -- except that perhaps layoffs and cutbacks have so pared away institutional memory that there's just no one left who remembers 1989; and
• Ed Sozanski says that d'Harnoncourt will be difficult to replace. The Inquirer says that Sozanski will have a fuller remembrance in Sunday's paper.

Obviously missing from the Philadelphia coverage: As the most important cultural figure in Philadelphia, d'Harnoncourt might have been able to prevent the hijacking of the Barnes Foundation. There's no evidence that she tried and so far as I know she never spoke publicly against the move. Her silence was instrumental in allowing Philadelphia's power structure to kill the Barnes.

Also: It's hard to note the absence of something in a consideration of a career, but you didn't see AEG's Tut or other such silliness at d'Harnoncourt's museum. Her Philadelphia Museum provided a standard.

On the retirement of Seattle Art Museum director Mimi Gates:

• Regina Hackett discusses Mimi Gates and Anne d'Harnoncourt (with a great picture of Gates and Richard Serra);
• Hackett's thorough evaluation of Gates' tenure;
• Sheila Farr in the Seattle Times;
  
• Jen Graves asks: Does Gates' departure increase the possibility that American art collector Bill Gates makes a gesture toward the museum? I don't think Gates has any Caravaggios-for-SAM up his sleeve, but as an American art collector Bill Gates is rivaled only by Alice Walton...