New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art considers charging tourists admission fee

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New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art considers charging tourists admission fee

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Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art take in "The North Cape" by Norwegian landscape and marine painter Peder Balke, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibit will be on display through July 9, 2017.

Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art take in "The North Cape" by Norwegian landscape and marine painter Peder Balke, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibit will be on display through July 9, 2017.Credit: AP

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, grappling with a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, is quietly talking to city officials about charging admission for visitors from outside New York - an idea bound to be debated, since the Met is a public institution that was free for a century and now has a "suggested" entrance fee that many don't pay.

Met leaders have mulled a mandatory fee over the last year as they resorted to cost-cutting steps, including laying off staff, postponing a new wing and reducing the number of annual exhibitions to about 40, from nearly 60. Charging admission would generate significant new revenue, but the move could have unintended consequences for municipal financing of the museum, for the Met's reputation as a public institution, for tourism and even for Mayor Bill de Blasio's re-election campaign.

Unlike several Manhattan museums that charge admission, the Met's building is owned by New York City, which gives the museum $US26 million ($A35 million) - the largest amount that the city provides to an arts institution. Still, the city's appropriation to the Met covers just about 8 per cent of the museum's $US332 million annual operating costs. The Met's current "suggested" adult admissions fee, $US25, generated about $US39 million in the fiscal year 2016, or 13 per cent of the museum's overall revenue. A mandatory fee would be likely to generate tens of millions of dollars more a year, providing a much-needed and reliable shot in the arm.

Should the Met stand to make these additional millions, the city might become more inclined to shift public money to other arts groups, a prospect that city officials are now considering as part of a new cultural plan, to be released soon.

The Met board and the mayor would both have to agree on an admissions fee and navigate the symbolic shoals of making a taxpayer-supported institution no longer free to all.

"We have spoken to the Metropolitan Museum about the possibility of changing its admission structure not for New Yorkers, but for out-of-town visitors," said Tom Finkelpearl, the city's commissioner of cultural affairs. "Should we receive a formal proposal, we will consider it."

Ben Sarle, a spokesman for de Blasio, said on Wednesday morning: "We are still waiting to see the proposed plan between the Met and our department of cultural affairs. The Met is one of our most beloved, historic New York cultural institutions, and we are ready to work with them to make sure they have the resources they need to thrive."

The discussions come at a precarious time for the Met. Leaders of the museum, the nation's largest, have made financial missteps that have led to a budget deficit that stands at about $US15 million. The Met's director, Thomas P. Campbell, resigned under pressure in February, and the board of trustees, which includes mayoral and city appointees, has been criticised for poor oversight.

Daniel H. Weiss, the Met's president and its acting CEO, acknowledged this week that the museum is "looking at everything to bridge our budget deficit, including the pricing structure we have with the city, which is something we have done throughout our history."

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He added that city officials "have a right to a clear understanding of how we would be engaging the public, how we balance access with sustainability."

There are models for admissions fees at public museums: Entry to the Louvre and the Muse d'Orsay in Paris, for example, is free to residents of the European Union younger than 26; others have to pay €15 ($A22). Institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum charge $US25 for adults, and the Whitney Museum of American Art $US22.

"I'm not opposed to museums and cultural institutions charging out-of-city residents," said Jimmy Van Bramer, the majority leader of the City Council and the chairman of its Cultural Affairs Committee, who said he was unaware of the Met talks. "When I go to Paris and Madrid and the Pergamon in Berlin, I expect to pay. I'm more than OK as an American tourist abroad paying because I also understand that what I'm doing is helping to support these amazing institutions."

Currently, 63 per cent of the Met's 7 million annual visitors come from outside New York state. Still to be determined is whether the new charges would apply only to nonresidents of New York City or to nonresidents of New York state. What about people who commute every day into the city for work and consider themselves New Yorkers? And how would residency be established at the front desk? These are two of the questions that Met leaders and city officials must reckon with before a final decision is made.

Indeed, the political optics of instituting an admissions fee could impact de Blasio's re-election campaign, especially if the museum is seen as gouging tourists or reversing a historic principle of making a cultural institution free to the public.

"This risks being a classic case of 'penny-wise and pound-foolish,'" said Mark Green, the former New York City public advocate. "Revenue is good, but so is our reputation of being a tourist-welcoming city."

The New York Times

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