A Hushed Departure at the Met Museum Reveals Entrenched Management Culture -
By ROBIN POGREBINAPRIL 2, 2017
In 2010, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hired Erin Coburn away from the J. Paul Getty Museum, lauding her as its “first chief officer of digital media” — a role created
and promoted by the Met director and chief executive, Thomas P. Campbell, as part of his efforts to move the museum into the 21st century.
As for the staff, no one was told the real reasons for the departure of Ms. Coburn,
an executive described by former colleagues as “visionary” and “principled.”
“To drive someone like Erin Coburn out and see her undermined was very disconcerting to the whole department,” said Paco Link,
the digital department’s former general manager of creative development, who had also worked with Ms. Coburn at the Getty.
Though no clear explanation was given at the time, recent interviews with former and current staff members reveal
that Ms. Coburn had long complained that she was unable to do her job effectively because of a close personal relationship between Mr. Campbell and a female staff member in her department.
The exact nature of Mr. Campbell’s relationship with the staff member — whom is not naming to protect her privacy — is not widely known, except
that she became friendly with Mr. Campbell when he was chief tapestry curator and that their relationship grew closer after he became director in 2009, current and former employees say.