by Jon Lackman | 21 September 2009 | Museums
We belatedly catch up with former Met director Thomas Hoving, who finished serializing his memoir at Artnet over the summer:
If I could do it over what would I do differently? I would not have gotten my Ph.D. in art history and archaeology nor would I have become a museum curator. I would have taken a great dollop of art history, sure, but I would then have gone to a series of schools and apprenticeships for art conservation. That would have satisfied my hunger for the objects themselves, my desire to become an active artist and would have allowed me to help preserve for other generations wondrous works of art. I would have not restricted myself to great paintings, but would have learned the techniques of fixing up and preserving paper, sculpture, leather and anything blessed artists had used over time to create divine things. Conservation would have enabled me to study and reveal fakes in a more professional way. Plus, since conservators are in such demand, I’d always be employed.
But if Hoving had become an art conservator (they are such a mild-mannered breed), how would he have satisfied his lifelong and relentless search for fame and publicity?