MAX HOLLEIN
MET Director and CEO
Since joining the museum, the MET Director and CEO has overseen over 100 exhibitions that have pushed the legacy institution into the new century, as well as the construction of a forthcoming Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art.
WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU IN 2025?
Forty-three Met exhibition openings, four galas, one opening of a new wing, and travel to India, Peru, Japan, France, China, Korea, and a sleepy backwater village in upper Austria for our annual three-week family summer vacation.
WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE?
I have been very interested in alternative, post-punk, and noise rock for years. [As a teenager, I] went to every concert of the Wire, Hüsker Dü, the Sugarcubes, the Fall, Black Flag, Toy Dolls, and the like that I could. It was an important part of growing up.
WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT YOU?
I might come across as reserved, calculating, and managerial, but am actually quite impulsive and value creativity, risk, and challenge above all.
“During my first-ever visit to the Venice Biennale with my parents as a 3-year-old, I fell into the Grand Canal and a gondolier had to fish me out of the water.”
NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE.
Many people make a direct connection between me and my father—the Pritzker Prize–winning, museum-building avant-garde architect. But it was really my mother, with her sensitivity, empathy, openness, and care, who has had the most profound influence on who I am.
WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR?
During my first-ever visit to the Venice Biennale with my parents as a 3-year-old, I fell into the Grand Canal and a gondolier had to fish me out of the water. He called me “Massimo Terribile” and my parents did the same for years after.
in your life?