Marzio 10th on best-paid list

by Bill Davenport April 27, 2010

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s director, Peter Marzio, is 10th on the NY Times’ list of best-paid leaders of cultural institutions in the US. According to the Times, Marzio was paid $940,138 in the calendar year 2009, putting him ahead of the directors of the Met (the art museum, not the opera, whose director Peter Gelb will score $1,345,00 this year),  Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, The Whitney, and the New Museum, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

10 comments

10 comments

Rainey April 27, 2010 - 08:58

The NYT provides total budgets for each organization but doesn’t break down these salaries as a percentage of budgets. From that perspective, Marzio comes in the middle of the pack, with his compensation at 1% of the MFAH’s budget. The top 5 earners on this list as a percentage of total budget are:
Park Avenue Armory – Rebecca Robertson, president (6.5%)
El Museo del Barrio – Julián Zugazagoitia, director (4.3%)
New Museum – Lisa Phillips, director (3.9%)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation – Thomas Krens, director until 2008 (3.8%)
Studio Museum in Harlem – Thelma Golden, director (3.6%)

To be fair to directors of smaller institutions, their salaries necessarily become a larger percentage of total budget.

Notably, Krens’ compensation at the Guggenheim ($2.74MM) was $1.4 million higher than the next-paid director. Also notably, Phillipe de Montebello, just under Marzio in the list with $916,030, earned a modest 0.3% of the Met’s total budget. And despite the lingering traces of resentment among Houston old-timers who remember his brief, unhappy stint at the MFAH, he’s arguably one of the the greatest museum directors of all time.

Of course, what would be most interesting to see would be what living artists who showed in these museums were paid. Did they earn anything at all? Did they get anything beyond a catalog and the honor of having a museum show on their CVs? The directors, curators, and staffers all got paid. What did the artists get?

Reply
theremin April 27, 2010 - 11:24

Worst case is Glenn Lowry’s 1.32 million. This is throwing good money after bad, considering the $425 million paid for the rennovation of the MOMA, with the end result being very little change, except the price of attendance, and a stifling, constraining floorplan.

Reply
rainbird April 28, 2010 - 15:48

what a couple of Philistines you are.

Reply
RobertWBoyd April 30, 2010 - 14:18

Rainbird–are they philistines because they are interested in the economics of the art world? Considering how economic factors affect art, it is totally reasonable to have an interest in them. As Marx said, “Without slavery, no Greek art.” See also Pierre Bourdieu and Thorstein Veblen.

Reply
theremin May 3, 2010 - 13:59

Not me. But I once dated a girl named Phyllis Stein! I think everyone should strive to be more like her!

Reply
Asshole May 8, 2010 - 15:59

Philistines are a movable feast.

Reply
rainbird May 8, 2010 - 16:11

find out what health-care coverage Marzio has and what he pays for it.
Then find out why we all can’t have it.
I had health care coverage right up until I got a call 2 weeks ago saying I had to sign a piece of paper saying I was legally married to the person I’d been a partner with for the last 19 years. I’m not signing anything …and I’m just wondering what gay couples insured by this company are going to do because they can’t get get legally married in this sorry state.( even if they wanted to ). I payed for and will continue to pay for my health care coverage. I ‘ve gotten a singular self – employed type thing but something is rotten in Denmark, I just don’t know who to contact or threaten.

Start here.

Reply
rainbird May 8, 2010 - 16:21

The individual policy I got with BCBS of Texas is going to cost me $245. a month. It doesn’t cover preexisting conditions or medications. Sad thing is….I actually feel lucky.

Reply
rainbird May 8, 2010 - 16:34

The paradox is also commonly referenced in sport. The paradox is generally used to refer to a game between two teams or individuals, one of which having a strong defense, and the other having a strong offense. Me , I just smell bad.

Can’t seem to help it. ( see… preexisting conditions…..)

Reply
rainbird May 8, 2010 - 16:45

…and I eat too much.

Reply

Leave a Comment

Funding generously provided by: