A rare glimpse behind the scenes of the world's most influential museums Who are the people shaping the world's most renowned museums? In this captivating book, Donatien Grau offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of leading art institutions and their visionary directors. Through insightful conversations with some of the most influential figures in the museum world, he reveals how they opened their doors to ever-growing audiences while preserving artistic excellence. From the Louvre in Paris to the Guggenheim in New York, these personal accounts explore the balance between curatorial vision, cultural responsibility, and the evolving role of museums in society. The book sheds light on the people, ideas, and strategies that have transformed museums into cultural landmarks. Part personal reflection, part cultural history, this volume reads like a thrilling journey through the corridors of power, art, and public engagement. A must-read for art lovers, cultural professionals, and anyone curious about what happens beyond the museum walls. Featuring interviews with: Michel Laclotte (Louvre), Sir Alan Bowness (Tate), Sir Timothy Clifford (National Galleries of Scotland), Philippe de Montebello (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Irina Antonova (Pushkin Museum), Peter-Klaus Schuster (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Sir Mark Jones (V&A), Tom Krens (Guggenheim), Wilfried Seipel (KHM), Henri Loyrette (Musée d'Orsay, Louvre). DONATIEN GRAU(1987) is an internationally recognized critic, scholar, and museum executive. Named one of Apollo Magazine's "Forty under Forty Europe" in 2014, he is a leading voice in the dialogue between contemporary culture and classical institutions. Grau currently serves as Head of Contemporary Programs at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where he shapes innovative exhibitions and fosters global conversations on art, museums, and cultural policy. His work bridges scholarship and practice, making him one of the most influential cultural figures of his generation.

As places to enjoy art, as well as institutions that have become historic, museums can also be examined through the question of who exactly heads up these temples of art. What kinds of personalities have guided the fates of these large, traditional institutions? How have they done so, and what has motivated them? What galvanizes international curators or museum employees, and how have they risen to the challenge of opening their organizations to increasingly large numbers of visitors? Donatien Grau has conducted impressive conversations with influential museum operators. We have him to thank for these personal, art historical, cultural-political, and timely insights into museum operations, the histories of various institutions, and their leaders' very personal attitudes toward art. This volume reads like a detective story about the mediation efforts of museums and the personal motives behind them.

Interviews with MICHEL LACLOTTE, Director of the Louvre, Paris, 1987-1995; SIR ALAN BOWNESS, Director of the Tate, London, 1980-1988; SIR TIMOTHY CLIFFORD, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1984-2006; PHILIPPE DE MONTEBELLO, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977-2009; IRINA ANTONOVA, Director of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 1961-2013; PETER-KLAUS SCHUSTER, General Director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1998-2008; SIR MARK JONES, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London 2001-2011; TOM KRENS, Director of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, Venice, and Bilbao, 1988-2008; WILFRIED SEIPEL, General Director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1998-2008; HENRI LOYRETTE, Director of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (1994-2001), and the Louvre, Paris (2001-2013).

DONATIEN GRAU is a newspaper art critic, a museum curator, and a university teacher. His lively and clever voice has a firm place in the field of art.

Museums have a striking ability to make us believe in the present moment that they have been here, and will be here, forever. When we enter the Louvre, whose architecture has been consistently changing over the last half-century, we have the sensation that the display of objects has always been what it is now. But the museum has expanded beyond its limitations, adding new wings to a growing ensemble. Ieoh Ming Pei's pyramid was built on the esplanade. New departments have been founded-most recently, one devoted the arts of Islam. A new entrance was added in the 1990s, which was restructured at the beginning of Jean-Luc Martinez's tenure in 2013. The Louvre now has a president-director, who oversees all aspects of the museum-it had no such position until Michel Laclotte's appointment in 1987. When the Grand Louvre was conceived, under Laclotte's supervision, it hosted roughly two million visitors and was planned for five million. Ten years later, it hosted more than ten million. In the 1990s, there was only one Louvre, whose borders kept shifting. In 2017, there were three: the Louvre in Paris, the sanaa-designed Louvre-Lens in northern France, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, newly opened in a Jean Nouvel building. The museum of museums, as the Louvre is known, has changed. And so have all museums of comparable scope and relevance.

In the same way as museums can appear eternal-eternal in the present-it is a commonplace to say that leadership does not play any role in the history of museums; museums are places for the community, where individuality does not matter; they are collaborative endeavors of a group of equals: the curators. Art museums are devoted exclusively-following Ruskin's ideal for London's National Gallery-to the contemplation of works created by human genius. But as the number of visitors who go into museums has kept growing at an unprecedented pace over the last three decades, they have become institutions with a constituency. Not only do they reflect the pol…