New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald joins us every day during the drive to discuss one life featured in the obit page. Today: museum director Thomas M. Messer.
→ From the WNYC Archives: Thomas Messer Interviewed on "Views on Art" (1967)
From the Obituary of Thomas M. Messer
"It was due to Tom’s charm, grace, diplomacy and — and this is a point that none of us should ever forget — his love of great art that Peggy gave her collection and palazzo to the Guggenheim and not to the Tate,” Peter Lawson-Johnston, who was the Guggenheim’s president during Mr. Messer’s directorship, said at a celebration of Mr. Messer’s 90th birthday in 2010. He added: “Here we are, three decades later, with Guggenheims in Bilbao, Berlin, Venice, and soon to be Abu Dhabi. The foundation for all this was laid by Tom Messer. And I can tell you, he laid that foundation under budget.”