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Rating: 
Summary: A must read for museum-ophiles
Review: After spending many happy hours in the Metropolitan, I really enjoyed this book. Hoving pulls no punches and getting the "inside dirt" was fasinating and fun! I know I wouldn't care for him as a person, given the size of his ego, but he must be given credit where credit is due for putting the Metropolitan in the position it is today, no matter what the cost. After doing significant amounts of fundraising myself, I know it is often a thankless and tiring duty, and one that takes considerable talent. Hoving makes what probably was a painful process interesting and intriguing in the re-telling. And there is a generous amount of information sprinkled through the book about the challenges of curating a major museum that I haven't read anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating ! A "fishing trip" to acquire the big stuff.
Review: Hoving takes you inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some stories about how he brought the blockbuster exhibitions to the Met are very interesting. Art lovers will like this book. Some pictures include the work of ancient Cyprus and the art in the Egyptian rooms. He explains the art of toading. This book can get kind of stuffy. Hopefully, everyone is still talking to one another. Everybody should walk the halls of this building and appreciate the acquired works. This is a good place to see if you are visiting and exploring the big town. The author makes you want to go over there.
Rating: 
Summary: Egotistical,but Interesting
Review: This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the politics that go on in a world-class museum. Hoving weaves a fascinating tale that makes for the best late night reading. The only problem is that Hoving's ego plays just as big a role in the book as does the famous "hot pot" the museum illicitly acquired from Italy. Overall, however, it is an excellent book. If you like this one, you'll also like his book on art forgery, "False Impressions".
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Summary: SPILLING THE BEANS ABOUT THE MET REVOLUTION
Review: This is a refreshing book, about the author's personal quest to transform the Metropolitan Museum of Art of N.Y., during his tenure as director of the museum (1967-1977).
When Hoving arrived as Director, he assessed the Met as a disorganized institution, a collection of collections, located in a mixture of buildings and architectures that gave "the impression of something worse than incomplete; it seemed forgotten and forlorn...." At the time Hoving was offered the post, he was commissioner of Parks, under the tenure of Mayor John Lindsay, whose mayoral campaign the author had joined with a leave of absence from... the Met, where, after receiving his Ph.D. in Art from Princeton University, he went from assistant curator to curator of the Medieval Department and the Cloisters. And indeed, it was Lindsay, when told the news about the directorship, who said: "...have you considered the boredom? Seems to me the place is dead. But, Hoving, you'll make the mummies dance." Hence the title of the book.
The story is a fascinating, at times egotistical and gossipy account of what it took to revolutionize an institution like the Met. From the seduction of the patrons and trustees, such as Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Annenberg, Brooke Astor, Robert Lehman, to the development of a network of experts, smugglers and famous collectors, Hoving takes us on a journey that reveals a lot about the inner workings of power, expertise and glamour, in the art world.
At the end, we are led to believe Hoving's final insight about his tenure:
"With the creative energy of the Trustees who had been on my side and the stuff who supported me, the most sweeping revolution in the history of art museums had taken place. The Met, once an elitist, stiff, gray, and slightly moribund entity, came alive. THE MUMMIES DID DANCE......"
Rating:
Summary: Dancing to the mummies' tune
Review: This lively look at the life and work of a director of a world-class art museum not only educates and entertains, it shocks. The mummies do, indeed, dance as Thomas Hoving takes on the Park Service to expand the museum, wiggles around UNESCO and fights a host of governments for his favorite works of art, plays one collection against another, trades, deals and bluffs his way toward making the Metropolitan Museum of Art what it is today.Hoving has a steam-roller personality, the energy of nuclear fission and no small amount of self-confidence. His educational background -- Princeton and an archeological expedition or two in Europe -- isn't as impressive as you'd expect, but he makes up any shortcomings with old-fashioned chutzpah. After some experience in minor jobs and a city job with the Parks Department, he's told he may be selected as director of the Metropolitan so he looks the place over and makes some notes: "The museum needs reform. Sprucing up. Dynamics. Electricity. The place is moribund. Gray. It's dying. The morale of staff is low. The energy seems to have vanished. You've been missing all the fine exhibits...." This book shows how MOMA gets from where it was then to what it is now -- the politics, infighting, backbiting, sneaking, smuggling and downright stealing it takes to make a museum one of the finest in the world. It's also a fairly realistic look at the glittering personalities and the haute monde of the New York City of a few decades ago. This is a rousing tale that should hold the interest of any reader, art lover or no. Never mind that Hoving doesn't hesitate to toot his own horn. This is, after all, his book. Even taking the stories with a massive grain of salt, they're always riveting and vastly amusing. No one will ever say of Thomas Hoving that he has no opinion on the people and the issues of the art world or that he hesitates to express them. I can't imagine anyone not being fascinated by this marvelous picture of the fabulous and often sham world of art museums and the people who support them and run them.
Rating:
Summary: A gossipy delight
Review: This treasure was passed to me by a gallery owner who said I would love it and she was right. Hoving gives you just the right amount of background to ensnare you in Art politics and society without overdoing it and boring the reader who isn't that into art. The book is peppered with anecdotes about the glitterati of the New York and international art/high society scene that ends up having the tone of Gore Vidal but on a subject he probably would never touch.
Rating:
Summary: A gossipy delight
Review: This treasure was passed to me by a gallery owner who said I would love it and she was right. Hoving gives you just the right amount of background to ensnare you in Art politics and society without overdoing it and boring the reader who isn't that into art. The book is peppered with anecdotes about the glitterati of the New York and international art/high society scene that ends up having the tone of Gore Vidal but on a subject he probably would never touch.
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