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In today's Times, critic Michael Kimmelman brings up the Chanel show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He notes that facts about the designer's relationship with the Nazis are not brought to light at the show, wondering if Chanel would have been so quick to offer sponsorship had the exhibition included those details.

In an op-ed last week, Lee Rosenbaum, contributing editor to Art in America, asked why the Met's curators allowed Karl Lagerfeld more involvement in decision making than was his due, and suggests they need to exercise complete control over shows.

In a letter to the Times, Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Met's Costume Institute, where the exhibition was housed, gives Rosenbaum an answer printed in today's paper. Calling Lagerfeld an artist, Koda says, "Curators of contemporary works are not hampered or compromised by their ability to have a dialogue with living artists, but rather have a rare privilege," and further insists that "the curators would have been remiss had we not engaged Mr. Lagerfeld's expertise simply because of an expectation of the kind of criticism directed against us by Ms. Rosenbaum."

FOR FULL STORY CLICK: New York Times: "Art, Money and Power"
New York Times: "Fashion Victim"
New York Times: "Chanel at the Met"