Thomas Hoving
American consultant and former director of Metropolitan Museum of ArtWikipedia
9
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 9 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Thomas Hoving".
Sep 28, 2026
Matthew CampbellGUEST
He'd been smashing around Cyprus before he ended up in New York.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
The figure I focus on in the book, who is this great New York character who's largely been forgotten now, was Thomas Hoving, who became director in 1967.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And he totally transformed Cyprus.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
that institution, which is the leading art museum in the US.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
The Met had to fill its collection the American way, which is on the free market by buying it.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And the Met in 1967, a year that's important to our story for other reasons too, gets a new director, Thomas Hoving, who's young, very dynamic, wants to modernize the institution, wants it to respond to the evolving interests of the public.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And the 60s are going on outside.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And one thing that happens in the late 60s, early 70s is the beginning of this Western and American fascination with the quote unquote exotic East, you know, with Hinduism, with Buddhism, the hippie trail, developments like that.
Josh GelernterHOST
So I really don't understand it, but it's a great shame.
Dan GelernterHOST
One thing that Thomas Hoving's book on being curator of The Met made clear is that there is a tremendous difference in temperament between the curators and departments of the museum.
Dan GelernterHOST
And...
Dan GelernterHOST
The curators all have their skills, some more political and some more artistic and some really neither.
Richard PolskyGUEST
And it's vastly entertaining.
Richard PolskyGUEST
At the end of the day, I mean, the funniest part of the movie is there was a curator named Thomas Hoving who ran the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Joe RowanHOST
And, you
Richard PolskyGUEST
know, that's like he had one of the most important positions in the art world.
Richard PolskyGUEST
the person, you know, the MC, you know, the guy running the documentary said, how could you say it so fast? You didn't even look at it.
Richard PolskyGUEST
And he's like, I know, I know it's a fake.
Richard PolskyGUEST
He goes, well, how do you know? And he's like, basically, I'm Thomas Hoving.
Richard PolskyGUEST
I've immersed myself in the art world.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So it went on basically a 40-year acquisition spree.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So the Met in 1967 gets this new director, a, a man called Thomas Hoving, who was an extraordinary larger than life character.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
He was very young.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
He had kind of a democratic sensibility, a- and he understood that in this f- what he saw as a fusty, musty museum, the '60s were going on outside.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And among the things going on in the '60s in the culture were, uh, these fascinations with Hinduism, with Buddhism, with Asia.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And Thomas Hoving Tasked his curators with going to get the best artworks from that part of the world they could possibly find.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So suddenly you have this institution that wants to buy these pieces, that is not terribly bothered about where they came from, and indeed, you know, Hoving in a memoir later has admitted basically that he didn't care about provenance.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And Latchford stood ready to provide them from this supply chain, which had been born in the early days of the Cambodian Civil War.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So it went on basically a 40-year acquisition spree.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So The Met in 1967 gets this new director, a man called Thomas Hoving, who was an extraordinary larger-than-life character.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
He was very young.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
He had kind of a democratic sensibility.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And he understood that in this, what he saw as a fusty, musty museum, the 60s were going on outside.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And among the things going on in the 60s in the culture were these fascinations with Hinduism, with Buddhism, with Asia.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
And Thomas Hoving tasked his curators with going to get the best artworks from that part of the world they could possibly find.
Matthew CampbellGUEST
So suddenly, You have this institution that wants to buy these pieces, that is not terribly bothered about where they came from, and indeed, you know, Hoving in a memoir later has admitted basically that he didn't care about provenance.