Met man’s new LA chapter

ART insiders are buzzing that former Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas Campbell — who exited earlier this year amid controversy — has sunnily resurfaced in LA. The Post reported in April that Campbell stepped down “amid a furor over a potential $40 million budget deficit” at the museum, as well as a scandal involving a former museum employee, Teresa Lai, whose boss scored a cash settlement of $183,000 from the Met after complaining that Lai’s ties to the married Campbell made it so the boss could not perform her job. The New York Times reported that the relationship was “not the reason he left,” but “it contributed to a yearslong erosion of respect” at the Met. A rep for Campbell said, “This item references an allegation from 2012 that was investigated by independent counsel and from which Tom Campbell was exonerated. The story implies wrongdoing — there wasn’t — and that this had anything to do with Tom’s departure — it didn’t.” Months later, Campbell turned up in LA as the recipient of a Getty Rothschild Fellowship. This week, he posted a picture of the J. Paul Getty Museum on Instagram, saying, “So honored to have been selected as the Getty/Rothschild fellow.” He added with another post: “Ok, here’s the problem: My new office at the Getty Research Institute is so beautiful that I’m worried that I may not get any work done as I’ll be staring out of the window all the time!” He’ll be in LA for four months before heading to the UK as part of the fellowship.