In a surprise announcement today, ) currently has work in Mexico, China, Sagaponac, and Mola, Spain. “I have been AWOL from the office for 18 years, which I never intended,” he said, recalling an anecdote from Nicholas Serota wherein the director of the Tate Museum in London warned a group of fellow directors, “If you want to do exhibitions, never do an expansion; and if you do an expansion forget about writing, curating, or anything else while you’re doing it.”

Asked whom he thought would make the ideal candidate for his job, Riley said, “They asked, and I told them that they need an art historian—perhaps with a contemporary art background—who will know what’s necessary to make a nice building into a great museum.” And he added, “I think of it as a gift of a job, freely given.”