“It Was Cocktail Party Lore All Through the 60s, 70s, and 80s,” Says R. Couri Hay

The Rockefeller name, synonymous with wealth and influence, carries a shadow of enigma through Michael Rockefeller’s disappearance. The revamped Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reopened after a four-year, $70 million overhaul, rekindles this haunting tale while showcasing cultural treasures.

In 1961, 23-year-old Michael, a Harvard-educated anthropologist and son of then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller, traveled to New Guinea with the Harvard-Peabody Expedition. His dual mission: study the Ndani people and gather tribal art for his father’s Museum of Primitive Art, a trailblazing effort to honor non-Western craftsmanship. Returning later that year to the Asmat region—known for its vivid woodcarvings and rumored headhunting—he met his fate. On November 19, 1961, his boat overturned off the Asmat coast. Choosing to swim to shore with an improvised flotation device, Michael was never seen again.

Drowning was the official cause, backed by accounts of fierce currents and tides. Yet, the darker tale of cannibalism has gripped imaginations. “It was cocktail party lore all through the 60s, 70s, and 80s,” publicist R. Couri Hay, whose family had a house near the Rockefeller’s retreat in Maine at the time, told The Post. “I was a kid but I still remember. Nobody could believe it. It became kind of a funny threat. My father would say that if I wasn’t good he would send me away to be eaten by cannibals like Michael Rockefeller.” This vivid recollection fueled a cultural phenomenon, spawning documentaries, podcasts, novels, and even an off-Broadway play. Claims from 1962 missionaries about villagers in Otsjanep confessing to his death, and later tales of recovered skulls, only deepened the mystery.

The Met’s 40,000-square-foot wing now displays 1,726 artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas, including over 400 pieces Michael collected. “This is the finest such collection in a U.S. museum,” curator Alisa LaGamma said, emphasizing updated scholarship and technology. The wing honors Michael’s vision while leaving unanswered whether some artifacts hail from the very people linked to his unsolved fate.

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