‘ART’-BREAKER
Furor over gal’s tie to Met boss
An Upper West Side woman is at the center of a scandal involving her relationship with the outgoing head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Post has learned.
Former museum workers identified Teresa Lai, 46, as the employee whose boss scored a hefty cash settlement after complaining about Lai’s ties to married museum director Thomas Campbell, 54.
Lai and Campbell were “very close friends” while both worked in different departments at the Met, before Campbell was named director in 2009, the sources said.
Around the time that Campbell was promoted, Lai also scored a new job as manager of online publications, and later began going over the head of her boss, Erin Coburn, the museum’s chief digital media officer, sources said.
“She knew she had this power to do whatever she wanted, so she just acted however she wanted,” one source said.
In 2012, Coburn complained that she could not do her job because of Lai’s “close personal relationship” with Campbell, according to The New York Times, which did not identify Lai by name.
Two top museum officials secretly hammered out a deal for Coburn to leave, and she was paid $183,000 in addition to her $166,000 salary during her final year, according to the Times.
One former Met employee recalled watching Lai — a fashionable dresser who favors pricey clothing by designer Yohji Yamamoto — lean on Campbell as they left the Balon wine bar on East 81st Street near the museum about five years ago.
“I saw them kind of stumble out, looking very friendly,” the source said.
Once inside, a bartender noted the look of surprise on the face of the museum worker, who explained it was a reaction to having spotted Campbell.
“She said, ‘The guy in the bow tie with the Asian girlfriend? They’re in here all the time,’ ” the source recounted.
Another former Met worker said Lai turned “beet red” when the source walked into Campbell’s office and encountered both of them.
“Tom was among her biggest supporters,” the source said of Lai. “Tom was like an attack dog if I tried to say anything against Teresa.”
In February, Campbell resigned under pressure from his job — which paid him more than $1.4 million in total compensation in 2015 — amid a furor over a potential $40 million budget deficit.
The fiscal crisis led to 34 layoffs — with Lai among them — and more than 50 employee buyouts last year, and other costcutting measures that included postponing a major show on Versailles.
There was no answer Monday at Lai’s Upper West Side apartment, but a doorman handed The Post a cellphone to speak with “Christian,” who identified himself as Lai’s husband.
When asked for comment, he said, “Oh, God, no. We have no comment at all,” and hung up.
The doorman at the Fifth Avenue building across from the museum where Campbell lives with his wife, Phoebe, said the couple was not home, and Campbell did not return messages.