The Festschrift for the 65th birthday of the president of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage) contains more than 60 contributions by individuals from culture and politics, libraries and publishers. Among the contributors are Heinz Berggruen, W. Michael Blumenthal, Karl Dedecius, Wolfgang Fruhwald, Vittorio E. Klostermann, Norbert Lammert, Hermann Leskien, Jutta Limbach, Wolf D. Lucius, Michael Naumann, June Newton, Elisabeth Niggemann, Paul Raabe, Petra Roth, Henning Schulte-Noelle, Ruth Wagner, Christina Weiss, Karin von Welck, Christoph Wolff and Klaus Wowereit, et al. The subjects cover a spectrum ranging from the visual arts to museum designs and many aspects of books, publishering, librarianship and the promotion of culture."

Between a Temple of Art and a Big Event As places to enjoy art, as well as institutions that have become historic, museums can also be examined through the question of who exactly heads up these temples of art. What kinds of personalities have guided the fates of these large, traditional institutions? How have they done so, and what has motivated them? What galvanizes international curators or museum employees, and how have they risen to the challenge of opening their organizations to increasingly large numbers of visitors? Donatien Grau has conducted impressive conversations with influential museum operators. We have him to thank for these personal, art historical, cultural-political, and timely insights into museum operations, the histories of various institutions, and their leaders' very personal attitudes toward art. This volume reads like a detective story about the mediation efforts of museums and the personal motives behind them. Interviews with MICHEL LACLOTTE, Director of the Louvre, Paris, 1987-1995; SIR ALAN BOWNESS, Director of the Tate, London, 1980-1988; SIR TIMOTHY CLIFFORD, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1984-2006; PHILIPPE DE MONTEBELLO, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977-2009; IRINA ANTONOVA, Director of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 1961-2013; PETER-KLAUS SCHUSTER, General Director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1998-2008; SIR MARK JONES, Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London 2001-2011; TOM KRENS, Director of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, Venice, and Bilbao, 1988-2008; WILFRIED SEIPEL, General Director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1998-2008; HENRI LOYRETTE, Director of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris (1994-2001), and the Louvre, Paris (2001-2013). DONATIEN GRAU is a newspaper art critic, a museum curator, and a university teacher. His lively and clever voice has a firm place in the field of art.