New York’s Met seeks new director

A search committee has been formed to find a new director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Philippe de Montebello, who’s been in charge since 1977, says he plans to retire at the end of the year.

“Difficult as it is to contemplate life away from an institution to which I have devoted all but a few seasons of my professional life,” De Montebello, 71, said in a statement issued Tuesday by the museum, “I know the time is right for both my own -- and the museum’s -- inevitable transition.”

“He leaves an incomparable legacy,” said James R. Houghton, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees. “No museum director anywhere has done more to expand and enrich the appreciation of art for more generations and with greater taste, erudition, diplomacy and vision.”