Leadership changes at Musée d'Orsay and Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thomas P. Campbell resigned as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during Armory Show week, following intense pressure from staff and board members dissatisfied with his management amid a severe financial crisis. The museum, one of the world's most visited, faced a $10 million deficit as of April 2016 and implemented a painful financial restructuring. Plans for a new wing for modern and contemporary art by David Chipperfield, intended for the museum's 150th anniversary in 2020, were postponed indefinitely. Board president David H. Weiss will serve as interim CEO while the search for a new director continues. In France, Laurence des Cars, current director of the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, has been appointed director of the Musée d'Orsay by the French Ministry of Culture, replacing Guy Cogeval, who will step down on March 15 to lead research on Symbolist art and the Nabis under the museum's auspices. Des Cars began her career at the Musée d'Orsay in 1994, working there until 2007, and later contributed to the construction of the Louvre Abu Dhabi before taking the helm at the Orangerie in January 2014.