How Matthew Teitelbaum made 13 times more in bonuses than William Thorsell

The CEOs of Canada’s top cultural institutions were likely choking on their morning croissants last week when they read reports that AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum became a millionaire in 2009, raking in a total of $1,070,262 in salary, taxable benefits and a $665,000 bonus for completing the Transformation AGO project. (The average salary of Canadian gallery directors of national institutions is rarely more than $300,000 a year.) Today the disclosure was made more shocking by the news that no other Canadian arts leader received such a whopping amount for completing a project during the same time period. The ROM’s William Thorsell, for example, earned a meagre $50,000 for completing Renaissance ROM, and he gave half the amount back to the project. When the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts was completed in 2006, Richard Bradshaw, who spearheaded the renovation, saw no completion dough. There were no bonuses for leaders in charge of the Royal Conservatory of Music, the National Ballet School or the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, and Piers Handling won’t be getting one for TIFF’s new digs, either. We know who’ll be picking up the cheque the next time these bigwigs get together.

This post is now complete—where’s our bonus?

• Big bonuses at AGO raise questions [Toronto Star]
• Million reasons why AGO Director had a great year [Globe and Mail]