Philippe de Montebello

Philippe de Montebello stepped up to the podium at the press preview for the exhibition “The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions” and looked about ready to keel over. Explaining that he had caught a bug, Mr. de Montebello seemed adrift in a NyQuil haze, his voice croaky and his demeanor sluggish. The eve of a much anticipated tribute to an illustrious career—there are better times to catch a cold.

When Mr. de Montebello announced his retirement almost a year ago, many New Yorkers were taken aback. The museum’s public face and its unmistakable voice (who hasn’t heard those dulcet tones emanating from the nearest audio guide?), Mr.  read more »

All week we've been wondering just where and how the city's influentials will be watching the election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

At the Avon Foundation gala on Tuesday, Oct. 28, Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey told us that he will probably be shooting on Tuesday, but will take a break to vote. And at the FIAF Trophee des Arts Gala on Wednesday, Oct. 29, former Metropolitan Museum of Art director, Philippe de Montebello said that there was, frankly, no point in watching. 

"These days it's pointless to watch the election. Results are given one minute after the polls!" he said. "The drama of the all night stuff would be most unusual and rare now, wouldn't it?"  read more »

On Wednesday, Oct. 29., the French-born Philippe de Montebello was honored at the French Institute Alliance Francaise's Trophee des Arts Gala at the Plaza for his longstanding career as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"I always like to be honored!" Mr. Montebello told the Daily Transom. "I have no idea how they found me, I guess they must have looked me up in the phone book or something."

Mr. Montebello, who came to the U.S. from Paris when he was a teenager, has served as the Met's director since 1977. He was the longest serving director in the museum's history before announcing in January that he will step down at the end of the year; he will be replaced by Met curator Thomas Campbell. During his tenure, Mr. Montebello  acquired works such as Vincent Van Gogh's Wheat Field with Cypresses and Jasper Johns' White Flag, and the Daily Transom wondered if Ms. Montebello was nervous about the museum's well-being in his absence during a time of financial instability.  read more »

The fact that imperial Metropolitan Museum of Art director Philippe de Montebello is ending his 31-year tenure in just a few months is bad enough for the Upper East Side’s delicate collective psyche. But what would happen to the neighborhood’s sense of nobility if the molasses-voiced descendent of Napoleonic aristocracy (and, on his mother’s side, of the Marquis de Sade) actually moved away?

According to city records, Mr. de Montebello and his wife, Edith, director of financial aid at the Trinity School, sold their two-bedroom co-op at 25 East 86th Street this month for $2.195 million.

The buyer is graphic designer Holly Okner, whose father happens to be the investor Peter A.  read more »

Philippe de Montebello, who stepped down as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art after 31 years in January, will become New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts' first professor to teach the history, evolution and culture of museums. An announcement will be made tonight at a dinner celebrating the institute’s 75th anniversary, according to the New York Times. In addition to teaching at N.Y.U., he will advise the university on its plan for a new overseas campus at Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

“It’s a wonderful new chapter,” said Mr. de Montebello, who earned his master’s degree in art history at the institute. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Mr. de Montebello, who turned 72 on Friday, said he planned to teach full time. But rather than lecturing on what might seem most obvious — how to run a museum, for example, or the history of 15th- and 16th-century French and Netherlandish painting, his scholarly area of expertise — he said he would cover the history of collecting and connoisseurship and the evolution of museums, including the central issue of how the museum’s mission can be defined in today’s world.  read more »

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Philippe Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the past 30 years, announced to the Met’s board of trustees yesterday afternoon that he will resign from his post at the end of the year or until they could find a replacement.

The New York Times reports:  read more »

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the highest paid director of a nonprofit in the country, according to a survey of nonprofit executives conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.  read more »