Museums: Departure at the Modern

D'Harnoncourt's dream for the Museum of Primitive Art may have been realized last week, but the successor he groomed as director of the Museum of Modern Art was in trouble. A terse announcement from the museum said that Bates Lowry, 43, had "resigned for personal reasons." Actually, the reasons were not so much personal as mysterious. One put forth by knowledgeable observers was that President William S. Paley had demanded Lowry's resignation because he felt that Lowry had shown insufficient interest in raising funds. That was hardly enough to fire a man outright. An additional motive seemed necessary. The likely...

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