Speaking with Daniel Weiss, CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
How to understand the man through the art he has produced throughout his career
The weight of an adult human brain can vary between one and two kilograms, but the average brain is between 1.2 and 1.3 kilograms. When sitting in front of Daniel Weiss, the president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, you ask yourself how ‘the largest museum in the world’ can fit inside his head.
Well, it does. In order to better understand the future of the largest museum in the United States (that’s also an encyclopedic giant of epic proportions), it may be useful to get to know the man at its helm – an art historian whose career seems to have been destined to bring him to his current position. His passion: to understand humankind through the art it has produced.
Daniel Weiss was born on the other side of the Hudson, in Newark, New Jersey – in fact, outside of New York City. This ‘outside’ is a very special place – it makes it impossible not to wonder if a river, even if it’s the Hudson, is something that divides or unites. Perhaps Weiss, who was born into a Jewish family without much religious tradition but with a strong interest in thought, history and justice, asked himself this very question whenever he crossed the river ’s surface or travelled under its bed to visit – both as a child and an adult – his favourite museum: The Metropolitan. The Met.
Weiss is a historian who has set his sights on art from the Crusades. His first book, Art and Crusade in the Age of Saint Louis, looks at the connection between the monarchies of the Old Testament and their descendants who made up the French Capetian Dynasty. Like the Hudson, the Crusades can be likened to a river that united three of the largest monotheistic religions, whose values curiously led them to this violent confrontation.
To start with, I’ve put this extraordinary brain in front of me to the test, asking him for a summary of what the museum means to him.
Carmen Reviriego: We are in the ‘Air Force One’ of museums. How would you describe it in figures? Daniel Weiss: We are very proud that the museum is one of the largest in the world. It has a surface area of almost 195,000 square metres, which makes it larger than the Louvre. It holds about two million pieces of art – 1.5 million of which are on paper – and it is managed with a working budget of $320 million. We welcome more than seven million visitors from around the globe each year. We have about 2,250 employees who work here every day – the largest volunteer
program in the world with 13,000 people, and we are New York’s main tourist attraction. The museum is a large and complex institution with 17 curatorial departments, covering more than 5,000 years of art. We have works dating from 20,000 BC, yet most of them date from 3000 BC up until the present day. There is also a department exclusively dedicated to research and our own publishing house through which we publish around 30 books each year, all of which are distributed around the world. These figures describe some aspects of the institution.
CR: Is there any role that a museum can play in improving situations of conflict in the world of the 21st centu y?
DW: It's a question we have to ask. How can we help unite society and not divide it? It is important to show that we are a global community, and I think the museum indeed offers this as an opportunity, as visitors can see thousands of civilizations together under one roof. We have the chance to transcend our present-day challenges. And it is not easy. However, in recent years the number of visitors has increased from four to seven million, all of which come from different places around the globe. This increase is a result of people looking to find a community in which they can interact with others with similar interests; they’ve found this with the MET.
CR: I must confess that I’m in love with the Metropolitan Museum. Here you can walk through a space which seamlessly brings together all time periods of the history of art, which is something I can’t find elsewhere. One
day the phone rang, I imagine, and they confi med your appointment as president and CEO. Do you remember how you felt?
DW: To an extent, my dreams came true. I first got to know this museum when I was at school and I fell madly in love with it just like you did. Later on, I became an art historian and a professor. I would bring my students from Baltimore to New York to visit the museum. I knew that one day I would work here, and I knew it would be a great privilege. I guess that the feeling I had was that of knowing that to a certain extent, I would be lucky.
CR: What does the MET do that makes it so unique in comparison to other museums around the world?
DW: I can think of two things that this museum does which makes it so special. One is the collection and the other is the diversity of the objects featured in it. On one hand, its offer of temporary expositions is much greater than that of any other museum in the world, since it ranges from ancient art to artists who are still working today, such as Hockney. On the other hand, this diversity is also geographical. The entire planet is represented in one unique museum.
CR: And the second aspect?
DW: The way in which it was founded. The museum was founded in 1870 by an initiative of leaders within the City of New York – a group of entrepreneurs who had the idea of creating a museum in New York that was on par with the great art museums of Europe. They had both the vision and the ambition, but had neither the building nor the collection. And yet, in the period of time from 1870 until today, barely 140 years, they were able to create the gift to humanity that is the MET. Each and every one of the works of art at the museum has been received as a gift or donation. No other major museum in the world has been created in this way, not even the Prado, the Hermitage or the Louvre. And this is a remarkable gift which stemmed from the generosity of the American people and the rest of the world, who all believed in this idea.
CR: And where did the initial funding for the museum come from?
DW: One of the strengths of the MET is the fact that the sources of its resources are very diverse. Donations make up half of the museum’s budget, while the City of New York takes care of 9% of it. The rest of the budget comes from anyone willing to donate money. Of course, it should be added that we receive money from the restaurants at the museum and from the Met’s Friends Groups. The advantage of having so many sources of income is that it gives the institution a lot of freedom in terms of its ability to work. We are not a government institution nor are we the property of various patrons. We are a community which has the freedom to be flexible economically, enabling us to directly manage all acquisitions, our exhibition schedule and everything else the museum is involved with.
CR: What do you believe is the ideal balance between public and private entities in terms of funding?
DW: The greatest advantage of not having to depend on the government is obviously the freedom it provides. It is great that public funds support culture, but if this happens in excess, there’s a risk that they will want to control the institution they are funding. I believe that the best and healthiest financial model is one based on what I like to call a ‘co-investment model’.
CR: This focus on patronage makes me think of Louis IX of France and his patronage of the arts, which led him to construct one of history ’s most beautiful pieces of art, Sainte-Chapelle, a building which you’ve studied in depth. In my opinion, patronage isn’t about the money, but rather, it represents a form of culture. The culture of giving which in turn, is a way to connect with society. DW: It is, and at all levels. People feel very committed if they are able to participate.
CR: What is the greatest challenge for a museum of the 21st century?
DW: For us, the greatest challenge is related to the opportunity of becoming the largest encyclopedic museum in the world. We have enormous collections and people who visit from around the globe. We live in a time in which society is changing and evolving very quickly, with technological advances that allow everyone to be connected with one another.
CR: That is the key to my curiosity. How does a medievalist envision the future? What do you believe an institution like the MET can offer a world filled with new technological capabilities?
DW: Interesting. There are advances being made in the world of virtual reality which present today ’s sector with a dilemma that is currently being analyzed in depth. Will we still need to travel to Paris to see the ‘Mona Lisa’, or can we simply put on our virtual glasses and observe it in ways that are even better than seeing it in person? I think the precise challenge is to discover how we can adapt to best serve an audience that is increasingly becoming more and more immersed in new technologies.
No museum and, of course, no human being can be fully understood in just an interview. From his office, Weiss navigates the remodelling of the Rockefeller Wing with a budget of 70 million dollars. In this wing, the relationship between Egypt and Rome with Africa and the ties between Europe, Northern Africa and SubSaharan Africa will be explored. It will be difficult to avoid the great African protagonist that is the Nile. The Nile is a river that unites everything. And it is what brought Louis IX, the holy king, his fortunes in the last Crusade. Include it? Exclude it? This is something that must be asked to the rivers themselves. Or to Weiss.
"FOR US, THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IS RELATED TO THE OPPORTUNITY OF BECOMING THE LARGEST ENCYCLOPEDIC MUSEUM IN THE WORLD".