I love a good local history and at the moment, I am current reading Rogues’ Gallery: The Secret History of the Mogul and the Money that Made the Metropolitan Museum by Michael Gross.  Gross’ name may ring a bell if you read 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building (which I didn’t but which a lot of people did).  I gather that 740 Park (much hyped) underwhelmed a lot of people andit seems, from the reader reviews I’ve read and some of the actual reviews – that those people went into the book expecting something else.  I don’t know what.  I mean – I know the book is touted as “social history” but come on – something like that is bound to be more hardcover gossip column in the end.

So it didn’t surprise me that this was the distinct impression I am getting from Rogues’ Gallery. And that’s fine because that’s what I expected. I didn’t expect a detailed, scholarly work on the history of the Metropolitan Museum. After all, Rogues’ is only 560 pages long. How on earth could you do a thorough job of such a subject in only 560 pages. Even the Met can’t do it. They have volumes and volumes. And though many of those volumes are worthy and informative, none of them as entertaining.

The thing that strikes me about the negative reviews of Rogues’ that I have seen is that they seem to be disappointed that there isn’t more about the actual ART in the book. I wonder if they haven’t rather missed the point. It’s not about the art. It isn’t actually pretending to be about the art. There are, in fact, some levels at which the Metropolitan Museum isn’t about the art. Read the subtitle again. “The Secret History of the Mogul and the Money that Made the Metropolitan Museum.” Makes it pretty clear that this isn’t primarily about the paintings and the statues

I am enjoying this hardcover gossip romp and I don’t care who knows it. More when I finish.