On the night that the Met announced that Thomas P. Campbell would be its new director, his chief in-house rival for the job, Gary Tinterow, had been invited to a dinner at gallerist Marian Goodman’s house. But he didn’t show. Tinterow, who oversees nineteenth-century, modern, and contemporary art, was a favorite of departing director Philippe de Montebello, but the board picked Campbell, an expert in European tapestry. “That’s what everybody wants to know,” says a Met insider. “What’s Gary going to do?” For what it’s worth, there are options. The Philadelphia Museum of Art convened a search committee last week, and eighteen other art museums have vacant top jobs, according to the Association of Art Museum Directors, including the Seattle Art Museum and the Hirshhorn in D.C. But Tinterow said, “I have no plans to make plans to leave the museum that I love, to which I have devoted half my life. I have always admired Tom and his work, and I look forward to doing great things together with him.”
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