Date: 19 August 2009
This is an entertaining, unauthorized, account of the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his introduction, Michael Gross describes the Metropolitan as a, 'huge alchemical experiment, turning the worst of man's attributes - extravagance, lust, gluttony, acquisitiveness, envy, avarice, greed, egoism, and pride - into the very best, transmuting deadly sins into priceless treasure'. His book goes on to elaborate. Beginning with the Museum’s first director, who looted antiquities from tombs in Cyprus and sent them back to New York by the suitcase (often deliberately broken for convenience and still encrusted in dirt), Gross offers account after account of dubious dealings, cover-ups, public embarrassments (and coups), in-fighting and worse on the part of directors, presidents, donors and curators. I was shocked and amused in almost equal measure.
LB