The Met appoints Daniel H. Weiss president and CEO in leadership rethink

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Daniel H. Weiss appointed president and CEO of The Met | The Metropolitan Museum of Art has signalled a significant change in its leadership structure by permanently conferring chief executive responsibilities on its president, Daniel H. Weiss. The role of CEO was previously held by the museum director, Thomas Campbell, who announced his intention to step down from both positions in February. Weiss, a scholar in medieval and Byzantine art, and a former businessman, joined the museum as president in March 2015. He has been serving as interim CEO for the last few months, but will now officially assume overall leadership of the museum. The search for a new director – who will be responsible for The Met’s artistic direction and curatorial programme – is to begin immediately. The eventual appointee will report directly to Weiss.

£24.5 million Parmigianino goes to Getty | The temporary export bar placed by the UK culture ministry on Parmigianino’s The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist has been lifted, and the £24.5 million painting acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, it was announced yesterday. The painting, which dates from c. 1535–40, has been in the UK for almost 250 years and is acknowledged as one of the Italian artist’s finest works remaining in private hands. In February an export license was deferred in order to allow a British institution the opportunity to match the price, but no attempted bids were made. The deadline passed on 9 June.

Sydney art museum wins major government funding bid | The Art Gallery of New South Wales has been granted $244 million (AUD) by the state government for ‘Sydney Modern’, its long-delayed expansion project, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The news comes less than 24 hours after an in-depth article in the New York Times investigating the obstacles and opposition faced by the project, which was first proposed four years ago and whose fate until today remained uncertain. The government’s contribution will enable planned construction to begin by 2019, to be completed in time for the museum’s 150th anniversary in 2021. The museum is seeking a further $100 million from private donors to fully fund the project.

MoMA film curator named Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters | Dave Kehr, journalist, critic and film curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is to be awarded the insignia of the Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. The honour, which recognises Kehr’s achievements as a critic and curator of French cinema, will be conferred in a ceremony at France’s embassy in New York on 15 June.

Evidence in Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thefts reportedly missing | Two pieces of evidence in the infamous 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist – the duct tape and handcuffs used to restrain the museum security guards – have gone missing, according to a report in the Boston Globe that cites three anonymous sources familiar with the investigation. This information comes less a month after the museum’s board of trustees announced a doubling of the reward for information leading to the stolen artworks’ return. The Globe’s reporters say it is unclear when the evidence, which may retain traces of the thieves’ DNA, was lost, but it could be as much as a decade ago.

Joseph Grima tipped to be new director of Design Academy Eindhoven | Following the resignation of former director Thomas Widdershoven last summer, the Design Academy Eindhoven is believed to have chosen Joseph Grima as its new creative director, it was reported today by Dezeen. Grima, a former editor of Domus magazine and founder of design research studio Space Caviar, has curated numerous design and architecture biennials and currently holds the post of director of the New Museum’s Ideas City festival in New York. The academy has not yet confirmed the appointment but is expected to issue a statement soon.