The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) established its first full-time representative office overseas. Located in Geneva, Switzerland under director of international affairs Dr Mahrukh Tarapor, the new office is aimed at expanding and promoting the Museum’s relationships with museums and cultural ministries around the world, notes its news release datelined March 22, 2006 forwarded to Parsiana by friend and supporter Nerges Erani. As host to several international organizations Geneva has the cosmopolitan ambience and easy access to Europe, Middle East and Asia, making it the right choice for the Met’s initial expansion, adds the release.
Announcing the appointment the Museum’s director, Philippe de Montebello, described Tarapor as "one of the most widely respected professionals in the world.” He spoke of her diplomatic skills and knowledge and ascribed the Met’s many successful exhibitions to her energy. With the goal of ensuring that the Metropolitan maintains a broad, non-partisan presence in some of the world’s leading cities, Montebello hopes that Tarapor’s "increased international presence will build new bridges between the Met and its established colleagues and potential partners worldwide.”
Tarapor: building bridges for the Met
Long standing associate director for exhibitions at the Metropolitan, Tarapor will continue to supervise the Museum’s exhibitions office, working closely with its curators on their program of temporary exhibitions and permanent installations, traveling worldwide to locate and borrow artifacts from foreign institutions. The release notes that the reinstallation of the Museum’s galleries for Islamic art, scheduled to reopen in the 2009-2010 season, will be a priority for her.
Welcoming the prospect of contributing to the global extension of the Metropolitan’s activities Tarapor remarked that the European office is a "forward-looking initiative in a world of shrinking borders.” She attributed the Metropolitan’s widening scope with major exhibitions, acquisitions, loans and scholarship to its stewardship by Montebello over the past three decades.
India born Tarapor joined the Metropolitan Museum shortly after acquiring a dual doctorate (in English and Art) from Harvard University and since 1985 has been responsible for the Museum’s program of exhibitions. In that pursuit she has not only worked with curators, artists, designers and others who people the many departments of the Met but has traveled extensively to locate and borrow works of art from their home countries (see "Ambassador for art,” Parsiana, September 2003). She had won high praise for organizing Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain at the Alhambra in Granada – the Met’s first overseas venture. A particularly thrilling personal achievement she had mentioned in the course of an interview with Parsiana then had been the location of the Kutubiyya minbar, an exquisite piece of woodwork, and its restoration at the Badi Palace in Marrakesh.