He came on board in 2015 to stabilize a troubled Metropolitan Museum of Art, ran the museum after one director was ousted and then shared power with another. But on Tuesday, Daniel H. Weiss told the museum’s board of directors that he would step down as president and chief executive in June 2023.
“The institution is in a strong and positive place — I’m proud of the work we’ve done,” Weiss, 65, said in an interview. “I think it’s always best to know the right time. I’m ready to do something else.”
Weiss, the former president of Haverford College and art historian, said he wasn’t sure what his next chapter would be, though he looks forward to returning to write more and maybe do some teaching. The board will now evaluate whether Weiss should be replaced or whether it should leave its bipartisan leadership structure, which is unusual for art museums and was introduced in 2017.
The model appeared to serve the Met well, with Weiss, as president, serving as the business and administrative leader, while the directors — Thomas P. Campbell, who resigned under pressure in 2017, and Max Hollein, who was appointed in 2018 – provided the curatorial vision and programmatic ideas.
Under Weiss’ leadership, the Met balanced out its $310 million budget; surrendered the Breuer Building on Madison Avenue to the Frick; and moved on to his delayed Modern Wing, with the help of a $125 million gift from Oscar Tang, a Met trustee, and his wife, Agnes Hsu-Tang.
“Dan brought maturity and empathy to the museum and really calmed cloudy waters,” said Hamilton E. James, co-chair of the Met. “He took us to financial stability and navigated the place through all these weird curveballs that you wouldn’t normally expect.”
Weiss also guided the museum’s decision to change its 50-year admission policy, requiring out-of-state visitors to pay a mandatory $25 admission fee. Weiss has helped the museum through the pandemic, difficult discussions about race, and the controversy over Sackler donations.
When Met employees urged the museum leadership to recognize a “culture of systemic racism in our institution” in 2020, the Met subsequently passed 13 pledges on anti-racism and diversity, its first Chief Diversity Officer assumed. and raised funds to guarantee paid Met internships.
Weiss said he was especially proud of helping foster a more communicative, candid work environment. “We have created a more transparent, accountable institution,” he said.
But his departure inevitably raised the question of whether he was the loser in the power-sharing scheme. Starting as president and chief operating officer in 2015, Weiss added chief executive to his title in 2017 in a striking leadership reorganization that meant the next director of the museum would report to Weiss, rather than the other way around.
That next director was Hollein, who had long become accustomed to being in charge and had been working as a museum director since he was 31. His resume included 15 years at various institutions in Frankfurt and two years as director and general manager of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
In San Francisco, Hollein managed to take control, despite the museum’s powerful chairman, Diane B. Wilsey, known as Dede, who had a reputation for not relinquishing control.
Weiss was also used to directing the show at Haverford College and before that as president of Lafayette College, where he also taught art history, and as dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins.
In addition, by the time Hollein was hired at the Met, Weiss had the tantalizing taste of being in charge, running the museum after Campbell was pressured to resign as director in 2017.
But both Weiss and Hollein said that despite their admittedly different management styles and occasional disagreements, they’d had a constructive working relationship.
“I really believe in shared governance,” Weiss said. “Max and I are very different people, but as partners we work very well together. That is why the museum is thriving.”
Hollein said in a statement: “Dan has led the museum through unprecedented times. He has been an extraordinary partner, whose wisdom and judgment have been an example to all of us.”
Among the major infrastructure projects completed during Weiss’ tenure are the replacement of $150 million skylights over the European Paintings Galleries, a redesign of the British Galleries and the refurbishment of the Musical Instruments Galleries.
In addition, the Met recently introduced the reconstruction of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing (which houses collections of art from Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and ancient America). The museum is also renovating the galleries of the Ancient Near East and of Cyprus.
Weiss continued to keep his hand on writing. This fall, Yale University Press will publish its book Why the Museum Matters, which examines the role of art museums in our culture. In 2019, while serving as Met chief, he published a biography of a Vietnam War helicopter pilot and a poet who died in the war (it will be out in paperback soon).
One of the challenges facing the Met is the realization of the new modern wing and who will oversee that important branch of the museum: Last month, Sheena Wagstaff, the Met’s top curator of modern and contemporary art, announced that she was going to leave this summer. †
The dual partnership at the Met also extended to its board of directors in November 2020, when James and Candace K. Beinecke were appointed to replace Daniel Brodsky, the first time the board had had two leaders.
Asked if the museum would continue the shared structure of Weiss and Hollein, James said, “That’s what we’re going to start with — thinking about the right leadership structure, if there’s going to be a president, and if so, what’s the definition of that role.” He added that the board would consult Weiss and Hollein about their experiences, in addition to seeking input from employees and administrators.
The museum has experimented with management configurations over the years. Long-serving director Philippe de Montebello began reporting to the president, William Macomber, in 1977 and later became paralleled with William H. Luers, who became president of the museum in 1986 after a career in the United States Foreign Service. When Luers retired in 1999, the board added chief executive to the Montebello’s title, and the museum’s next president, David McKinney, reported to him, as did McKinney’s successor, Emily K. Rafferty, in 2005. .
Faced with an expected $40 million shortfall and low staff morale following Campbell’s departure, the Met viewed Weiss as something of a calming parent who would draw on his background as a capable manager. In addition to leading academic institutions, Weiss also holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and spent four years as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton early in his career.
Despite his lack of museum experience, Weiss took on the role of art director in the wake of Campbell’s departure — meeting curators about upcoming shows and becoming the public face of the Met.
When Hollein was hired, Weiss’s role was more clearly defined as the less sexy side of the operation. The new director assumed artistic leadership and quickly overshadowed Weiss with strong moves toward a more inclusive exhibition program, collection and staff.
Hollein has also delved into the contemporary art world, building on his European connections and lessons learned early in his career at the knee of Thomas Krens, the former Guggenheim director who turned that New York institution into a global powerhouse through his expanding reach in Bilbao, Spain, while stirring the pot by putting on shows of Giorgio Armani suits and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Hollein has curated numerous influential shows from living artists during his career, such as Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel.
An elegant figure with a Germanic accent, Hollein has also become a regular presence in the swirl, comfortably clinking glasses with power players at art fairs, biennials and gallery openings.
Weiss, on the other hand, has a calmer, college professor aura, though he was no less ambitious or cocky in every way.
But Weiss insisted his decision to leave had nothing to do with tensions or rivalries with Hollein. “We have a lot of respect for each other,” Weiss says. “There is no problem at all between Max and me.”
