THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210364
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Dr. R. Peter Mooz, curator of The Arts Center of the Portsmouth Museums, was fired Tuesday after five months on the job.
Betty Burnell, director of the Portsmouth Museums, acknowledged he was let go, but refused further comment. ``It's a personnel matter,'' she said.
Mooz's dismissal came two days after the unveiling of an impressive exhibit of rare imperial Russian treasures, including a lavish egg made by Peter Paul Faberge. The curator organized the show from a private local collection.
Mooz, a former director of The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, could not be reached for comment.
Prior to Portsmouth, Mooz directed several museums in Texas. He was dismissed in March 1995 from his last position as executive director of the Texas State Museum of History in Arlington, where he had worked since 1993.
He was asked to leave when the museum board discovered the institution's debt had increased under Mooz's leadership, and that the museum could no longer afford his $44,000-a-year salary, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
From 1991 to 1993, Mooz was executive director of the Dallas Historical Society, where he hosted a major traveling exhibit of imperial Russian treasures collected by Catherine the Great.
While the big-ticket show drew record crowds, it incurred a loss of $500,000 to $1 million for the historical society, according to news report. Mooz told a reporter the debt was not the reason for his departure, but that he left because the board interfered with his work.
While director of The Virginia Museum, from 1976 to 1981, Mooz acquired the nationally significant art collections of Paul Mellon and Sydney and Francis Lewis. He also started a $15 million endowment campaign and began plans for the new West Wing.
When he left the museum in June 1981, he and board members told reporters he was taking a leave of absence.
A search for a new curator will begin in a few weeks, Burnell said. ILLUSTRATION: Dr. R. Peter Mooz's dismissal came 2 days after the unveiling of
an impressive exhibit.
by CNB