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According to the Wallstreet Journal Philippe de Montebello's retirement as director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is the most prominent in a recent wave of high-level departures rattling the museum world.

With a generation of seasoned postwar directors beginning to retire, at least 21 U.S. museums -- including the Bass Museum of Art in Florida and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington -- are searching for new directors, nearly double the usual vacancy rate, according to the Association of Art Museum Directors, a New York-based nonprofit representing more than 180 museum directors. In several cases, like the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., the hunt for a replacement has been going on for well over a year.

The Metropolitan Museum began searching yesterday for a new director to succeed Mr. Montebello, 71 years old, who said he plans to step down by year's end after leading the museum for more than three decades, the longest tenure in the museum's history.

Mr. Montebello's decision comes at a time when the once-tweedy position of museum director is growing increasingly complicated. The industry as a whole is grappling with reduced federal and corporate funding of the arts, along with several years of flat attendance.

Museum directors have responded by boosting their fund-raising efforts and adding a slew of audience-friendly offerings like museum cafés, gift shops and curator-led vacations. But museum experts say the daunting job description -- a mix of executive, lawyer and diplomat -- has spooked some curators from signing up to direct; others have left for higher-paying jobs at auction houses.

At the Met, Mr. Montebello's successor will need to be able to wax rhapsodic with curators about hieroglyphics and Damien Hirst as well as manage a staff of 2,600, a $201 million operating budget and a $1 billion capital campaign. The new director may have to navigate battles with foreign countries over disputed artworks, as Mr. Montebello had to do with Italy. And then there's the job of playing cultural ambassador for New York, where the Met reigns as one of the city's top tourist draws. Last year the institution and its collection of three million artworks and artifacts received 4.6 million visitors.

Art-world headhunters like Malcolm MacKay say the situation at the Met is different in some respects from other museums around the country. Mr. Montebello was paid $4.7 million in 2006, higher than anyone else at his level in the nonprofit world. Beyond pay, the job holds cachet and "what all museum directors want to do: positively impact our culture," says Mr. MacKay.

Potential candidates include Gary Tinterow, the insider who is now the Met's curator of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art; Timothy Potts, a former investment banker who used to run the Kimbell Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas; and Neil MacGregor, a lawyer who now directs the British Museum.

James Houghton, the Met's board chairman, says any successor will need to have an anchored knowledge of art history, in addition to business savvy. "We're not going to pick someone who's just good at the bottom line," Mr. Houghton said. "But the fact is, a lot of people no longer aspire to be museum directors ... because of all the headaches that come with it."

Mr. Montebello, a native of France who doubled the museum's size, said museum directors "used to be able to learn on the job, but it's more complex now." He said he won't take another job as a curator or art historian, but may pursue a job that would allow him to speak to broader museum issues.

Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston worries that trustees could be making their list too short. What they need to find, if possible, is a baby boomer with enough drive to juggle the job's myriad hats, he says. He cited the Met's decision in 1977 to hire Mr. Montebello as director even though he had run the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston for only about four years. "Someone gambled on Philippe years ago, and look how it paid off," says Mr. Rogers.