Boston is losing three museum directors with big shoes to fill. Each one, including Malcolm Rogers of the Museum of Fine Arts; Anne Hawley of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and Thomas Lentz of the Harvard Art Museums, has resigned within the year, after decades of leadership and completing major building projects.

During the recession, the worst time to fundraise, Rogers, Hawley, and Lentz began and accomplished museum expansions that cost a combined $800 million. 

A new leader for Boston's institutions would need that knack for pulling rabbits out of hats.