New York Metropolitan Museum: tourists will now have to pay the entrance
It's a fifty-year-old tradition that is disappearing. It will no longer be possible to return for free to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Until now, a rule has prevailed: pay what you want. Admittedly, the suggested price was 25 $ ; Of course, you had to wait in line at the ticket counter and assume that you did not want to pay the full price to enter the museum.
Nevertheless, since 1970, you could visit the museum according to your financial means. The new rule, announced Thursday, January 4, will apply from March 1 and is essentially for tourists, since residents of New York State can continue to pay the obole they like. Mandatory paying entry will affect 31% of visitors to the museum.
17% of visitors pay the suggested price.
This decision was announced by Daniel Weiss, CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, who has been striving to restore the museum's finances over the last two years. Inflows account for only 14% of revenues (out of a budget of about $ 300 million), and the share of people who paid 25 $ divided by four, from 63% to 17% since 2004.
This decision was announced by Daniel Weiss, CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, who has been striving to restore the museum's finances over the last two years. Inflows account for only 14% of revenues (out of a budget of about $ 300 million), and the share of people who paid 25 $ divided by four, from 63% to 17% since 2004.
The average price paid by the visitors was only 9 $, Weiss said in an interview in Le Monde at the end of December, tourists paying more than New Yorkers.
The museum, however, has developed a membership policy (9% of the museum's revenue), which pays 100 $ for the year and invites a guest for each visit. As a result, by adding schools, 41% of visitors do not pay when they enter the museum.
Above all, the temporary exhibitions do not give rise to additional invoicing: it is currently possible to admire four major exhibitions (Michelangelo's drawings, an Edvard Munch retrospective, a Rodin exhibition and an Edward Hopper retrospective). Mr. Weiss refused to return to this practice. Paying for temporary exhibitions, according to his expression, favored "blockbuster exhibitions", which are not in the tradition of the museum and would penalize New Yorkers, who come more frequently.
New York City, which funds 10% of the museum's budget, will reduce its contribution by 3 millions $.
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