Brush off

Lawton Fitt, the secretary of the Royal Academy, has taken the art world by surprise by quitting her job. Ms Fitt is an American, a moderniser and an investment banker. The Royal Academy is quintessentially British and still officially run by its artists, who are as perplexed by the concept of modernising as they are by the concept of investment banking. Add the mercurial and forthright exhibitions secretary, Norman Rosenthal, and it's not hard to see why she found the institution as perplexing as it found her. She is the second Royal Academy secretary to leave out of frustration. Never underestimate those ageing artists.