One of my greatest pleasures in recent years has been chairing the Advisory Board of the Palazzo Strozzi. I was asked to do so by James Bradburne, a highly intelligent and entrepreneurial Canadian, who was trained as an architect and ran the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt. Known for his floral waistcoats, he ran the newly established independent institution with great chutzpah, organising a whole series of memorable exhibitions, including a wonderful exhibition on Bronzino in 2010, a recent exhibition on Renaissance sculpture which travelled to the Louvre and a current exhibition on Pontormo. Now, according to the Art Newspaper, he faces the chop. What has he done wrong ? Was he too independent minded ? Or insufficiently ingratiating with his board ? If asked by Saxton Bampfylde, the headhunters who have been employed to find a successor, who should be the next Director, I will recommend Bradburne.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Poor man! The common fate of a successful change agent – for most people are most comfortable with the status quo, especially when it has been disrupted, however successfully.
@David French,..very true, indeed. So can all friends and regular visitors of Florence, lovers of the Palazzo Strozzi Bradburne style and generally all people with a 21st- century sense of what museums should be about rally behind James Bradburne and fight these petty politics? The man deserves our support!