Architect Calls Fogg Decision 'Tragic'

Two members of the committee seeking a new director for the Fogg Art Museum yesterday confirmed reports that President Bok's controversial decision last week to cancel a proposed $16.5 million addition to the museum would make their search more difficult.

"There's no question the search will be affected," said Simon M. Schama, professor of History and a member of the committee. "There's a big difference between running a museum in two buildings and in one crowded one."

Fears Over Art Sale

In a February 2 letter mailed to Fogg supporters, Bok expressed fears that a plan to sell art to defray the operating costs of the proposed building would jeopardize the search for a new director.

But John M. Rosenfield, Rockefeller Professor of Oriental Art and another Search committee member, said that "signs of administrative insecurity, if not ineptness, could have a deleterious effect on a candidate's confidence in Harvard's administration and museums."

The committee, which meets today for a regular meeting at the Fogg, is considering "less than a dozen" candidates for the Fogg post, Schama said. Rosenfeld added that none of the candidates is associated with the museum or the Fine Arts Department.

Current Fogg director Seymour Slive announced last spring that he would step down this fall, though he will remain on the Fine Arts faculty.

Bok cancelled the addition on Monday, citing the danger of possible construction cost over-runs and operational expenses in a period of general fiscal difficulty for the university.

In addition to making the search for a new director more difficult, Bok's decision apparently has also cost the museum millions of dollars in contributions pledged to the aborted addition. Long-time donors and members of the Fogg's supervisory Visiting Committee also predicted that Harvard would have to struggle in future fundraising for the arts.

In his February 2 letter, Bok emphasized "decessioning"--the proposed plan to sell certain pieces of the Fogg's artwork--as the main obstacle in the search for a new museum director.

Members of the search committee agreed that the decession plan might also have hurt their efforts, especially after a New York based museum directors' organization publicly criticized the plan. "The position taken by the [museum directors] was to strong that it was difficult to imagine that a candidate would look at the position without some reservations," Rosenfield said.

At least one leading candidate for the position had apparently said that he would not take the post it the decessioning plan were implemented.

Other members of the search committee, which was formed about a year ago, include Glen Bowersock, former Harvard dean and associate of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, Richard Caves, professor of Economics, Angelica Rubenstein, and official of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and John W. Strauss, a Fogg Visiting committee member.

Rosenfield said that the committee had not addressed the possibility of an interim director if they do not choose a candidate before next fall