BEHIND THE SCENES: A History of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N. Y.

Speranza

This book is mostly a series of condensed and edited interviews with the STAFF of the Metropolitan.

Anyone looking to get the big picture or a great narrative like Calvin Tompkins provided in 'Merchants and Masterpieces' will be disappointed, as I was.

All of the interviews provide interesting little nuggets of information, and a few are really fun to read (the best one is with the museum's director, Philippe de Montebello, who seems like a total gentleman) but all of them could have been trimmed back by about half.

This book is mostly padding.

And with so many people talking about their jobs without any sense of context, you begin to wonder what the point of this book is.

It seems like a memento for people who work at the Met, not a book directed to outside readers.

Maybe Danziger was going for the kind of effect that Studs Terkel gets with some of his interview books, like "Working," but Danziger, who is basically voiceless for most of the book, doesn't direct the conversations to big themes the way Terkel can.

Basically, you should only read this if you are Met Museum groupie.

Otherwise skip it.
What's the point.

I must say that I'm surprised by all of the great reviews this book has been given.

Its simply ok.

The Met is one of my favorite places to visit and reading the description of this book I went into it thinking I would love it.

I was sadly mistaken. In fact I couldn't wait to finish reading it.

The author clearly researched his topic well, interviewing countless people in each of the Mets departments but none are presented in an intriguing way.

Each person that is profiled is the subject of their own little chapter but the author never goes in depth into the person's job at the Met.

Take for instance the fact that we learn that the head custodian is a recovering coke addict but not what goes in to keeping such a massive institution running.

We meet curators and learn of their passion for their field or for say baseball but never what goes into their daily job as a curator in the greatest museum.

Really a dissapointment with very little if any redeeming qualities.

The book might as well have been about an athlete and ask nothing about their sport or an astronaut and ask them nothing about NASA.

High Art


A collection of short statements by some of those directly connected to New York's great cultural institution.

Those who have visited and enjoyed the Metropolitan Museum of Art will certainly like this book.

However, I think this book will be a pleasant and instructive reading experience for even those (such as me) who have never stepped foot in the Met.

Its many understated lessons go well beyond New York and even the world of art.

One can not read it without gaining a greater appreciation for the high morale that comes from strong leadership, solid ethics, and a collective sense of mission (the current board of the Smithsonian should take note).

For the enriching value of immigrants to our society.

For the importance of hiring experts based on merit and knowledge.

For the need for all sorts of behind the scenes workers to make a complicated organization work; and for the dignity of all jobs rightly performed.

I think Danziger's seemingly simple book deserves to endure as a minor classic.