Rogues’ Gallery
Michael Gross’s next book, Rogues’ Gallery, the story of New York’s great Metropolitan Museum of Art, will be published in 2009.
This item on the book appeared in the Liz Smith column on May 18, 2008:
The remarkable, incredibly valuable and super-important Metropolitan Museum of Art is bashing a book that is still being written - one of those Michael Gross exposés of the Upper Crust. (He also wrote the controversial “740 Park.”) The Met has refused to let its 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.) Says the writer: “They’ve done everything possible to obstruct me. Ordered staff not to speak to me, sent a lawyer to stop my interview with the Greek/Roman curator Dietrich von Bothmer. In an e-mail to the archives, one official referred to my book as ‘1000 Fifth.’ That may have been director Philippe de Montebello’s suggestion for a book title, but I have a better one - ‘Rogue’s Gallery’!” The Metropolitan is girding its loins, and, no matter what Michael Gross writes, it will survive. Freedom of speech lives!
This item about the book appeared on the New York Post’s Page Six on March 26, 2006:
WRITING SOME WRONGS AT THE MET
HAS Michael Gross met his match at the Met? Late last year, The Post
revealed that the “740 Park” author’s next book for Doubleday-
Broadway would tackle 1000 Fifth, aka the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bad timing - the Met was about to return its famous Euphronios vase
and other items to Italy, effectively admitting that it had bought
looted goods. Now, we hear the Met’s management has ordered museum
staffers to steer clear of Gross, who has also written no-access
books on designer Ralph Lauren and the modeling biz. Gross confirms
he met with Met director Philippe de Montebello and museum president
Emily Rafferty two weeks ago, but failed to win their cooperation.
“Official access is highly overrated,” Gross tells PAGE SIX. “I talk
to hundreds of people for every book, and I’m doing the same thing
this time.” The museum’s rep tells us they declined because they’re
already committed to working with another author on a book called
“Voices of the Met” about “the people who work at the museum on all
levels.”
That book was published in June 2007 under the title Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can read more about it (and even order a copy) here.
