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Making the Mummies Cringe, Pt. III
The New York Sun says that a certain book called 740 Park was removed from the shelves of the Metropolitan Museum of Art bookstore when its author decided to write his next book about….the Met. Say it ain’t so, M. de Montebello!
May 18th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
[...] Liz Smith has it first: the title of my next book on the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be Rogues’ Gallery. La Liz gets a few more things right, too. The Met is “remarkable, incredibly valuable and super-important,” and so is its incredibly rich story, which is why I chose to write it. The Met has refused to let a photo archive “sell photos of the building for the book jacket. (Even though the museum is owned by the city and sits on public land.)” And the Met “will survive” my daring to look at its history without its blessing. If all goes according to plan, Rogues’ Gallery will be published next year by Broadway Books, despite the museum’s attempts to stop it. Meantime, you can read Gripebox on the museum’s relationship to a free press here, hereand here. [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
[...] I missed this while in Rome for Halloween, but caught up thanks to unBeige: The next Party of the Year (aka Anna’s Party) for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art takes place May 4th, eight days before the publication of my “much anticipated” (per unBeige) new book, Rogues’ Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum. And the CI show opening that night, “The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion,” celebrates the subjects of my 1995 book, Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. Kate Moss, who I profiled in that book, and Marc Jacobs, whose early career I covered at the New York Times, co-chair the benefit. “Quite the cross-selling opportunity,” says unBeige. As the Metropolitan banned my latest book from its store after I told the museum I was writing Rogues’ Gallery, I wonder if they’ll relent and take the opportunity to make some money by selling Model (still proudly in print after thirteen years) and Rogues’ Gallery come May? And will anyone risk honorary museum trustee Anna Wintour’s wrath and invite me to the party? I’ve bought a bespoke Prada evening suit and a Martin Margiela waistcoat just in case. [...]