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“A great historical document,” says David Patrick Columbia
“The strange brouhaha over [Rogues' Gallery] has kidnapped the baby, so to speak,” writes David Patrick Columbia in this morning’s New York Social Diary. “The established ones who preside as cultural assessors of the first order have declared the history ‘rubbish.’ They, of course, would know, having concealed any number of secrets themselves….I liked Michael Gross’ Rogues Gallery. The story of the making of the Met is massive, complex yet simple and dynamic. His research is especially excellent considering that the Met set up roadblocks all along the way.” So what’s the problem with the book, he wonders? “The connoisseurs and their advisers and their minions and their minions’ sycophants tend toward the elitist. Big time. I am and you’re not….The game comes from childhood: I-know-something-you-don’t-know. In this great big town, like any great big town, it’s called power.” Hmmmm.
