Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will add to the title of chief executive officer, the museum’s board announced Wednesday, giving him full control of one of the world’s largest museums. gender.
Hollein will take up that new role following the departure of Daniel H. Weiss, the Met’s chairman and chief executive officer, who announced last month that he will step down in June 2023. (Weiss has been chairman of the Met since 2015 and chairman and chief executive officer since 2017)
“Max has done a great job during his tenure” as director, Candace K. Beinecke, one of the museum’s two board presidents, said in a phone interview. “He has inspired tremendous confidence as a future leader.”
The move brings the museum back to its single chief management structure, a structure it has departed from for many years. Met of the present two-pronged leadership structuresomething unusual for art museums, was launched in 2017, after Thomas P. Campbell resigns under pressure as a director and chief executive officer.
Having led other institutions before – most recently the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts – Hollein said he feels ready to broaden his horizons. “It’s a great honor, but it’s also something that comes with great responsibility,” Hollein said.
When asked how his leadership might differ from Weiss, Hollein said that although they have “different personalities”, he sees this as “a further step”.
As for Weiss, a former president of Haverford University and an art historian, he made it clear that, at the age of 65 and after running the museum through a period of instabilityHe’s ready for a new chapter.
“I would rather go on top,” he said. “Better go out when things are going well from a position of strength.”
