Michael Gross

"Explosive." --Vanity Fair

"Yummy." --New York Daily News

"Riveting and accurate. My God! The back-stabbing and Machiavellian conspiracies! I had no idea. I learned a lot." -Tom Hoving

"Michael Gross has proven once again that he is a premier chronicler of the rich. Rogues' Gallery is an insightful, entertaining look at a great institution-with all its flaws and all its greatness." -Gay Talese

"The author clearly relishes dishing the dirt, but he also offers a supremely detailed history of the museum...Gross’s portrait of Met politics is sharp and well-constructed. A deft rendering of the down-and-dirty politics of the art world." --Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2009

“Sprawling history…..Behind-the-scenes dirt and an intriguing look at the symbiosis of culture and cash.” –Publishers Weekly, March 30, 2009
Rogues Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum


The first independent, unauthorized look at the epic saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogues’ Gallery is an endlessly entertaining follow-up to Michael Gross’ bestselling social history 740 Park. Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class’s cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers–and paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power, a rich, satisfying, alternately hilarious and horrifying look at America’s upper class, and what is perhaps its greatest creation.