A Statement from Anne-Imelda Radice,
Director of IMLS, on the loss of
Anne D’Harnoncourt, Director and CEO of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art
WASHINGTON, DC (June 2, 2008)—
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is greatly
saddened by the sudden loss of friend of the agency and
the arts, Anne D’Harnoncourt.
Museums were in Ms. D’Harnoncourt’s
blood: as the daughter of Rene d'Harnoncourt, former director
of New York's Museum of Modern Art, she grew up in the
company of famous and influential artists, including Jasper
Johns, Marcel Duchamp, and Mark Rothko. After graduating
with a B.A. from Radcliffe College and an M.A. from the
Courtauld Institute of Art in London, she launched her
own outstanding career in the museum world.
Since 1997, she had served as both Director
and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art, one of the few women in the art community to hold
such a prestigious museum directorship. Under her guidance,
the Philadelphia Museum of Art flourished. Her contributions
to the museum and to the art world are wide-reaching,
and include her cultivation of a number of the museum’s
remarkable collections and her efforts to bring world-class
exhibitions to the institution.
The breadth and scope of Anne's accomplishments
are truly remarkable, and she will live on in the museum
she loved and served, and in the hearts and minds of the
art community. The Institute extends its deepest regrets
to her husband and colleague, Joseph Rishel, and to her
family. She will be greatly missed.
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