Max Hollein

Max Hollein is an Austrian art historian who serves as the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 10th director while reporting to Daniel H. Weiss, the president of the Met. Hollein previously served as Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco since July 2016. He oversaw both the de Young and the Legion of Honor, which together are the seventh most-visited art institutions in the United States, with 1.4 million visitors in 2016. Hollein joined the Fine Arts Museums in 2016 from his position as the director of Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung.

Hollein repositioned the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt nationally as well as internationally through a highly popular yet challenging exhibition program from classical to contemporary art mounting up to ten major shows per year. At the Städel Museum, Max Hollein introduced a wide spectrum of new exhibition formats: from small “cabinet exhibitions” on such artists as Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Martin Kippenberger and others, to the “Constellations” series with works of contemporary art from the museum’s holdings. Under Max Hollein, special emphasis was also given to the development of the collection: between 2006 and 2012 more than 1,500 works were added to the collection. A The Städel was honored as “Museum of the Year 2012” by the German art critics association AICA in 2012. In the same year, the museum recorded its highest ever attendance numbers, with 447,395 visitors. Under Max Hollein’s directorship, the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung underwent the greatest reorganization of its infrastructure since 1990. The various departments from Old Egypt and Antiquities, through Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque to Neoclassicism as well as the “studioli” on the top floor of the museum villa were newly installed under his tenure and reopened in 2008 with an entirely new color and lighting concept.

Hollein was born in Vienna in 1969 to architect Hans Hollein and Helene Hollein. He studied art history at the University of Vienna and business administration at the Vienna University of Economics. During this period, he also free-lanced for the business section of the national daily newspaper “Der Standard”. In 1995, following the successful completion of his studies with two master's degrees, one in art history and the other in business administration, he moved to New York City to take on the position of project director of exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.