Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art

By: Michael Gross  

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.”
With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class’s cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers. And he paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power.

The Metropolitan, Gross writes, “is a huge alchemical experiment, turning the worst of man’s attributes—extravagance, lust, gluttony, acquisitiveness, envy, avarice, greed, egotism, and pride—into the very best, transmuting deadly sins into priceless treasure.” The book covers the entire 138-year history of the Met, focusing on the museum’s most colorful characters. Opening with the lame-duck director Philippe de Montebello, the museum’s longest-serving leader who finally stepped down in 2008, Rogues’ Gallery then goes back to the very beginning, highlighting, among many others: the first director, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-born epic phony, whose legacy is a trove of plundered ancient relics, some of which remain on display today; John Pierpont Morgan, the greatest capitalist and art collector of his day, who turned the museum from the plaything of a handful of rich amateurs into a professional operation dedicated, sort of, to the public good; John D. Rockefeller Jr., who never served the Met in any official capacity but who, during the Great Depression, proved the only man willing and rich enough to be its benefactor, which made him its behind-the-scenes puppeteer; the controversial Thomas Hoving, whose tenure as director during the sixties and seventies revolutionized museums around the world but left the Met in chaos; and Jane Engelhard and Annette de la Renta, a mother-daughter trustee tag team whose stories will astonish you (think Casablanca rewritten by Edith Wharton).

With a supporting cast that includes artists, forgers, and looters, financial geniuses and scoundrels, museum officers (like its chairman Arthur Amory Houghton, head of Corning Glass, who once ripped apart a priceless and ancient Islamic book in order to sell it off piecemeal), trustees (like Jayne Wrightsman, the Hollywood party girl turned society grand dame), curators (like the aging Dietrich von Bothmer, a refugee from Nazi Germany with a Bronze Star for heroism whose greatest acquisitions turned out to be looted), and donors (like Irwin Untermyer, whose collecting obsession drove his wife and children to suicide), and with cameo appearances by everyone from Vogue editors Anna Wintour and Diana Vreeland to Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten, Rogues’ Gallery is a rich, satisfying, alternately hilarious and horrifying look at America’s upper class, and what is perhaps its greatest creation.

Publisher: Broadway

Release Date: 2009-05-05

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Fascinating - As an avid museum goer, I found the history of America's most important museum fascinating. I live in New York, and I go the Met on a semi-frequent basis. The trustees generally do not sound like the most likable people. Especially the most recent ones. While the original founders like J.P Morgan were inspired, at least partially, by national pride and patriotism, the more recent trustees are much more interested in social climbing. However, I, as Jane Q museum goer, still appreciate the results of their efforts.

Two quibbles. First, the author clearly has an opinion on the restitution issue, and he presents his opinion as fact. For a more balanced treatment of the issue try Loot by Sharon Waxman. She presents both sides of the debate in a much more balanced manner. Definitely, there have been major injustices in the history of art acquisition. The Elgin marbles, for example, clearly mean a lot more to the Greeks than they do to the British. And modern looting destroys archeological sites, which is a permanent loss for humanity as a whole.

But some of the source countries are more than a bit ingenuous when it comes to restitution. Turkey and Egypt, for instance, are far more interested in tourism dollars and the revenue from traveling exhibits than they are in the objects themselves. And they want everything back. Period. The source countries already have much more than they can afford to display or take care of. They are swimming in artifacts. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's vice minister of culture, views allowing more archeological excavations as a concession in exchange for return of already excavated objects. Even though Egypt keeps 100% of the objects excavated. The end result of their actions, if they had their way, would be that museum goers, scholars, students, and artists who cannot afford to travel or pay the admission to the very expensive traveling exhibitions won't have the opportunity to see ancient art. And their own museums are, for the most part, empty. Except for tourists.

Second, if the author thinks that the permanent collection halls are empty, I suggest he try going there on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They may not be quite as mobbed as the temporary exhibits. But they're far from empty. Certainly nowhere near as empty as the archeological museums in Turkey.

That said, the book was fascinating, and made me look at various objects in the museum in a new light. And if he writes a book about any of the other New York Museums, I would definitely buy it.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
michael's gallery - Mr. Gross surpasses himself. This "oeuvre d'art" is a MUST for ages 13 to 99 and over.

Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Gross and gratuitous Met-bashing - I give "Rogue's Gallery" two stars because it is less than half the book it might have been had Gross approached it with a better attitude.

His history of the Met covers the expansion of its physical plant in considerable detail, but without any floor plans or elevation diagrams it is hard to keep track of the growth. The financial history is couched in sentences and paragraphs full of seven- and eight-digit numbers (all zeroes and dollar signs) which are almost impossible reading; these data cry out for graphic presentation using tables and charts. And all his stories of the artefacts (the colossal "Adam and Eve" statue, the faience hippo) and people (through 150 years of fashion and fad) cry out for pictures.

The reason so much is missing is that the Met authorities refused to cooperate with the author, and you can see why: the title alone shows that this book was intended as sensationalist Met-bashing from the very git-go. It was a poor stance to take, and quite unnecessary, because there is obviously the material there to make a grand story, just as a plain objective account. The behind-the-scenes wheeling-and-dealing would still be there, still fascinating, and better documented.

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Interesting Read But Biased - I found this well-researched book an interesting look into the history and workings of the Metropolitan Museum, so I'm grateful I read this book and therefore learned a lot about the world of art and art museums.

And yet I'm disappointed with ROGUES' GALLERY. Here's why: So many characters come and go I couldn't bond with any of them, even though Mr. Gross fills his book with many short, interesting biographies; so I suspect I didn't bond partly because the characters are, for the most part, depicted coldly and unfavorably. I got the strong feeling that Mr. Gross is biased against the wealthy and wrote his book - though certainly not a hatchet-job - with a clear agenda.

(I've worked as a chauffeur so I've had a lot of first-hand experience with the wealthy of New York.)

I'm sure many of the people who helped make the Metropolitan Museum what it is today were decent people with a strong love of art, some of whom donated their collections so the public - the non-rich - could enjoy them. I would have liked to have met those generous people. If I had this book would be a fairer, more-accurate history, and therefore a better one.

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS BOOK? - I am truly fascinated by who would find this book interesting or useful. I've worked with hundreds of museums for over 40 years (including The Met) and I'm finding the book very interesting but I can't figure out who the book's target audience is (if it in fact has one). New Yorkers? The reviews giving this book 4 and 5 stars seem to be primarily from New Yorkers. People who work/have worked/have worked with/for The Met?

I'm reading this book on the Kindle which I find makes reading a book seem much shorter than reading the print version. Yes, there are formatting errors but that's true of just about all of the books I've read on the Kindle. I really can't imagine reading this in print as the first couple of hundred pages (as other reviewers have noted) are endless lists of donors, new trustees, dead trustees, prices paid for things, annual budgets, etc.

If you're interested in reading this book, I strongly recommend reading it on a Kindle. Or, if you don't have a Kindle, get this through your local library.

--> Find out more about "Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art" at Amazon.com or Order Now