Anne d’Harnoncourt
Just as I was about to leave for the Metropolitan Museum came this shocking and unbearably sad news: “Anne d’Harnoncourt, chief executive of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1982, died unexpectedly this morning at age 64,” Bob Warner of the Philadelphia Daily News reports. “The cause of D’Harnoncourt’s death was not immediately available.”
[FIRST UPDATE: a later version of the Daily News story said that she “died last night at her Center City home after suffering a stroke….She had been recuperating at home after undergoing a “fairly minor” hospital procedure, said Gerry Lenfest, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees.” The Philadelphia Museum’s press release—which must be the saddest communication Norman Keyes, director of media relations, ever had to issue, is here.]
D’Harnoncourt was a woman of grace, great distinction, contagious enthusiasm and, above all, warmth. A tremendous loss to the city to which she was a heroine, and to the art world for which she was a role model.
SECOND UPDATE: Here’s what Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum, said at today’s Met press lunch, in tribute to his beloved colleague:
I am in total shock and disbelief. She was a friend of mine for more than 40 years. She went to school with my wife. She was a guiding light in all the museum world and I can’t tell you how much I’ll miss her.
…as will we all.