Metropolitan Museum President Daniel Weiss Resigns After Leading Financial Turnaround

Daniel Weiss, President and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 2015, has announced his resignation effective June 2023. Weiss led the institution through a severe financial crisis, achieving a balanced budget for the first time in three years in 2019. His tenure included the controversial 2018 decision to end the 50-year-old 'pay-as-you-wish' policy for non-New York residents, replacing it with a $25 admission fee. This move, while criticized, helped stabilize the museum's finances. Weiss leaves the Met under the direction of Max Hollein, who became director in April 2018 after Thomas P. Campbell resigned in 2017 amid the crisis. Hollein, an Austrian art historian formerly at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, is credited alongside Weiss with the museum's revival. The Met may not appoint a new president, potentially restructuring its dual leadership model. Recent major donations include $125 million from Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang in December 2021 for renovating the modern art wing, designed by Frida Escobedo, and $40 million for new galleries dedicated to Cyprus and the ancient Near East, designed by NADAAA and set to open in 2025.