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Making the Mummies Dance : Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1993)

door Thomas Hoving

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386765,396 (3.81)9
"No museum in the world is like the Metropolitan Museum of Art - and no man has ever run it, or revolutionized it, quite like Thomas Hoving. In a decade, Hoving changed almost everything people had grown accustomed to from the Met, shaking the institution out of royal repose and transforming it into the most vital cultural presence in the country. Now, the irrepressible former director delivers a fearless account of his life at the pinnacle of the art world - a modern Vanity Fair, a true story of masterpieces and money, society and scandal, intrigue and international theft." "The Met is more than a dazzling art showplace. The museum is a vibrant if quietly influential community, inhabited and run by singular sorts of people: trustees and curators, connoisseurs and conservators. It is steeped in history and tradition and seems to move in a serene and elegant world of impeccable manners and the finest taste." "Behind the proper social veneers and pristine marble galleries, Hoving reveals the cutthroat precincts where the real business of the Met is carried out. From seducing important patrons like Robert Lehman, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Annenberg, and Brooke Astor to spiriting ancient treasures across international borders; from striking secret agreements with the world's most powerful dealers to sidestepping rivals; from securing blockbuster exhibitions, like "Tut" and "The Glory of Russian Costume," to seizing the most phenomenal Velazquez portrait, Hoving shares not only the nimbleness and brashness that made him so effective, but also the zeal and passion that made the Met so exciting." "Making the Mummies Dance is told in the head-on, even naughty, way that is trademark Hoving. This is an important, shocking museum story and more - an unforgettable tale of power struggles and one-upmanship, fame, big money, and, of course, great art."--Jacket.… (meer)
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1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Interesting behind-the-scenes look at the running of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ( )
  Steve_Walker | Sep 13, 2020 |
The Metropolitan Art Museum is one of my favorite places to visit. To sip tea in the American Wing, overlooking Central Park, is lovely. To see the Tiffany glass works and the large Rodin statue in that wing is one of my favorite things to do. And, during the holidays to visit the incredible Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche is a sheer joy. The American Wing contains the Winslow Homer painting titled Gulf Stream, and I love to absorb every detail of this stunning work!

So, then, what's not to like about the museum, except, the previous director! In his book, page after page is filled with me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

Hailing from a small town, of course, I have no reference of cultivating millionaires, or knowing just the right thing to say at the right time, I imagine that directing such a prestigious museum, fund raising, and navigating through a pinkies-in-the air board of directors has many challenges.

Still, I could not enjoy the book because of the many references to his accomplishments, his hobnobbing, his snobbery, and thus, the continual name dropping made finishing the book a sheer agonizing accomplishment.

I enjoyed reading Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Danny Danziger. It was a joy to learn about the Met through his wonderful interviews of employees.
That was a five star book; doesn't light up at all.

Hoving was more impressed and obsessed with himself and all the glamorous people he touched rather than explaining the every day workings of the Met.

He may have made the mummies dance, but I'm very sure that after one round, they were happy to go back into their sarcophagus.

NOT RECOMMENDED
2 stem Whisper1 | Jan 4, 2015 |
After reading this book, the impression I'm left with is that Thomas Hoving is a huge snob.

Basically this book covers the early years of his appointment to director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I think it helps to have visited the museum to properly appreciate the works he talks about acquiring, and the changes he made to the building.

It is interesting to read a behind-the-scenes account of acquiring works and museum management - but a lot of it is just name dropping and casually mentioning million-dollar price tags. If I ever become a museum director (Lord, save me from that fate) I would want to read this again, but as a lowly curator it makes my brow furrow in disgust.

It receives three and a half stars because it is well written - not because I like the content. ( )
  lizzybeans11 | May 18, 2011 |
Woo. Never a dull moment. No spade not called a spade, no opinion unexpressed. One thing I will certainly say for Hoving, though, is that he isn't any more afraid to discuss his own foibles and shortcomings and outright failures than he is everyone else's. That's part of what makes his writing appealing. When his own horn deserves tooting, it certainly gets tooted (and, again, he is fair - others' horns toot all over the place as well), but he doesn't ignore his errors. I'm still stunned by the sheer underhandedness that went into the acquisition of many, if not most, of the works in the museum, and the strata of hatred and enmity and cronyism (?) throughout the art and antiquities community. Maybe it's just as well I never went that route (it was a passing dream) - I would have been eaten alive. I was attracted by the title, which was Hoving's intent when he became Director of the Met. And he did it. ( )
  Stewartry | Feb 10, 2011 |
Rarely have I enjoyed a book more while disliking the author so intensely. I think he'd be rather difficult to be in proximity with -- and yet he can tell a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. What an amazing recount of the roller coaster ride of transforming this venerable museum. What an interesting take on city government and arts groups and community groups, etc. The part about the exhibit "Harlem on my Mind" was particularly poignant -- I saw this exhibit as a very small child and it's still etched in my head decades later. A man who accomplished a great deal, who can spin a yarn, and who one can admire for his accomplishments if not his demeanor or methods. Read it. ( )
  Oreillynsf | May 15, 2010 |
1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
In "Making the Mummies Dance," his bizarre, nasty and ultimately disheartening account of his stormy 10-year reign as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Hoving gloats about a bit of heads-up detective work. He writes that as a candidate in 1966 for the directorship, he discovered, unbeknownst to museum officials, that "the relentless State Commissioner for Human Rights, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was preparing to hit the museum with a series of legal charges alleging massive abuses in the hiring practices and promotions of women employees." His "shocker," he recalls, stunned the trustees, and he implies that it helped him to win the job.

This anecdote is vintage Hoving for its combination of skulduggery, one-upmanship, bravado and unreliability. In 1966, Ms. Norton was working for the American Civil Liberties Union and had no dealings with the museum; she never served as State Commissioner, although in 1971 she became chairwoman of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Furthermore, according to the museum, no such investigation of hiring practices took place until 1971, during Mr. Hoving's own tenure; and then it involved the office of the New York State Attorney General, not Ms. Norton, who this week confirmed the inaccuracies of Mr. Hoving's story.

Details, details. Mr. Hoving does not let them get in the way of this docudrama of a memoir, which, like the incident with Eleanor Holmes Norton, has little to do, in the end, with art, and sheds too little light on the running of a great museum. . . .

toegevoegd door PLReader | bewerkNY Times, Michael Kimmelman (Jan 8, 1993)
 
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This book is dedicated to all those members of the staff, trustees, volunteers, and friends of the Metropolitan Museum who supported the revolution that changed the institution so markedly, and to my wife, Nancy, who, thankfully, never quite became a proper museum wife.
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"No museum in the world is like the Metropolitan Museum of Art - and no man has ever run it, or revolutionized it, quite like Thomas Hoving. In a decade, Hoving changed almost everything people had grown accustomed to from the Met, shaking the institution out of royal repose and transforming it into the most vital cultural presence in the country. Now, the irrepressible former director delivers a fearless account of his life at the pinnacle of the art world - a modern Vanity Fair, a true story of masterpieces and money, society and scandal, intrigue and international theft." "The Met is more than a dazzling art showplace. The museum is a vibrant if quietly influential community, inhabited and run by singular sorts of people: trustees and curators, connoisseurs and conservators. It is steeped in history and tradition and seems to move in a serene and elegant world of impeccable manners and the finest taste." "Behind the proper social veneers and pristine marble galleries, Hoving reveals the cutthroat precincts where the real business of the Met is carried out. From seducing important patrons like Robert Lehman, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Annenberg, and Brooke Astor to spiriting ancient treasures across international borders; from striking secret agreements with the world's most powerful dealers to sidestepping rivals; from securing blockbuster exhibitions, like "Tut" and "The Glory of Russian Costume," to seizing the most phenomenal Velazquez portrait, Hoving shares not only the nimbleness and brashness that made him so effective, but also the zeal and passion that made the Met so exciting." "Making the Mummies Dance is told in the head-on, even naughty, way that is trademark Hoving. This is an important, shocking museum story and more - an unforgettable tale of power struggles and one-upmanship, fame, big money, and, of course, great art."--Jacket.

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