The resignation yesterday of Lawton Fitt, secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts, was the latest in a line of high-level resignations to hit the venerable institution in recent months.
Since the summer, it has lost the head of its art school over financial irregularities, followed by its president in October, ostensibly to ill health but amid rumours that he had been pushed.
Fitt's resignation, which the Independent put down to frustration at the failure of her attempts to reform the institution, also appears to have been the result of a long-running feud with the RA's formidable exhibitions secretary, Norman Rosenthal.
All this bloodletting has led to the establishment of a governance review of the RA's arcane decision-making process. The panel is filled with artists and business leaders, which in itself is sure to set off another row over the creeping takeover of the RA by a corporate culture perceived as unsympathetic to artistic sensibilities.
There's an element of history repeating itself as the RA itself was created as a result of an ugly leadership dispute: in 1768, Sir William Chambers and James Paine fought over who should be president of the Society of Artists - Paine won, but Chambers used his royal connections to create the Royal Academy.
Chai Hong Lim
