BALTIMORE — Christopher Bedford, the at-times controversial director of the Baltimore Museum of Art who brooked no opposition in his quest to use his institution to achieve social change, has resigned his post and is moving to California.
Bedford, 44, will become director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an institution with roughly a third of the BMA’s 95,000 artworks, but about five times its annual $20 million budget.
The museum’s board of trustees was notified Wednesday that Bedford’s last day will be June 3. Trustees are expected to name an interim director and will conduct a “rigorous and expansive search” for Bedford’s successor, board chairwoman Clair Zamoiski Segal wrote in a letter to the BMA’s board of trustees, staff members and supporters.
