Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Fiske Kimball Professor in the History of Culture and Museums, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, discusses his years as director of the Metropolitan and the cultural importance of museums. He is speaking at the Metropolitan Museum about Antoine Watteau’s painting Mezzetin and reading poems by writers inspired by Watteau on November 19, in conjunction with the exhibition "Watteau, Music, and Theater," September 22–November 29.
Event: Philippe de Montebello is speaking and reading poems: "Watteau and Words: A Reading of French Poetry"
Thursday, November 19, at 6:00 pm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Tickets: $25.00. More information and tickets here.
Guests:
Philippe de Montebello
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Comments [6]
For us "On Demand" folk, what happened to "Listen to the Whole Show"?
On a completely unrelated note - I listen to the show podcasts and for some time they have been preceded by a message from your sponsor, Austria, "the birthplace of Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder". I find it a bit of a stretch since Otto Preminger was born in what is now Ukraine, and Wilder in Poland, both places at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
How does your guest feel about the Elgin Marbles controversy?
Mr Montebello
Do you believe that museums have a responsibility to return questionably obtained art no matter their importance to the museum it is currently housed and even if it disrupts
the breath of a museum's collection, such as part of the Greek and Roman works at the MET and Yale's Peruvian acquisitions. I believe you testified as such in DC.
What was your most prized or beloved acquisition during your tenure at the Met--Golden Boy, Wheat Fields or sheparding in a private collection such as Linsky or Annenberg.
Looking forward to your reading next Thursday.
What is the role of the museum director and Board of Directors in preserving the CULTURAL HERITAGE of a city? When Mr. Montebello was director the Met purchased a peiece for the new Greek and Roman galleries from Sotheby's sale of works from the Albright-Knox Art gallery in Buffalo, NY. Like the proposed sale at Brandeis Univrsity, this highly controverial sale was suddenly sprung on a community that held the works very dear indeed. Is he aware of the deceptive tactics used in the Albright-Knox sale? Over 200 Antiquities dating back to the 12th Century BC were lost forever to the people of Western New York.
a former painting teacher told me Watteau kept file cabinets of life sketches which he used to create compositions - eg. he would search the 'chiens' file is he needed to adda dog to a canvas.
would Mr. de Montebello confirm this and discuss his methods a bit?
thanx
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