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NYC's Met Working Through Financial Difficulties

The METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of ART in New York City is taking measures to rebound from more than a year of internal turmoil and financial difficulties, the Associated Press reports. Is the MET a GREAT institution in Decline eventually in collapse?
Following the logic of Republicans it would be okay, as long as taxes are reduced for those who avoid to contribute to the state taxes ... that serve the community.
And if so, a collapse, what is happening to the art? Given to SOTHEBY´s for an auction? Will the artwork of Jean-Théodore Dupas, his grand NORMANDIE St.Gobain panels "Char de Poseidon" be on the market? The MET is only subsidised by the city of New York.
by Earl of Cruise
CHAR DE POSEIDON - courtsey METROPOLITAN MESUM OF ART, New York
CHAR DE POSEIDON, carton displayed in the MuMa, Le Havre - courstsey Musée d´art modern André Malraux, Le Havre
My concern is a general, not only the art made for NORMANDIE.
The METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of ART, a behemoth of culture and wealth, is rebounding from more than a year of internal turmoil and financial problems. But we should make no mistake, there’s no immediate danger to the museum, which has endowments of $3 billion. But what if it would come to?
We’ve had financial challenges - significant ones - over the last couple of years that have culminated over the past year, and a rather significant need to reorganize the institution and to retrench our finances,” said Daniel Weiss, the museum’s president.
About 100 staff positions have been eliminated through buyouts and layoffs. The number of special exhibits staged each year is being slashed from 55 to about 40. A $600 million new wing that had been planned, but not fully financed, is postponed indefinitely. Instead, the Met will be focusing on more pressing capital needs, Weiss said, including spending as much as $100 million to replace a block-long “ocean of bad skylights” built in the 1930s over art galleries.
The deficit is not high compared to the total budget, but remember, these numbers are not just about the money: Donors want to back a winning story, and any indication that it’s not makes them skittish,” said Andrew Taylor, an arts management expert at Washington-based American University.
Here I do see a problem, these donations are done to please the donors, and with the special exibition their names are famed. This is not what preserving art for the future as the heritage it is should be.
In Europe we have the museum scene organized by public foundings out of taxes and eventually entrance fees added. F.e. the Musée d´Art Moderne in Paris. And for a special exibition about a special artist, art period or such, there is an entrence fee. The museums are dedicated to a special "theme" or art period.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART - courtesy METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
And surprisingly it works well. And there is no risk for bancrupcy at least and loosing the art presented and attracting tourists and/or visitors. Because of this founding system, Dortmund, the city where I am living, has a number of different museums with interesting exibitions. Dortmund itself is an industrial city, that had to fight against declining (dying) after the loss of the montan industries ... but with the museums we got more attractive for investors and employees here. A private only financed museum scene would not do such things at all.
When the industry is leaving the city has no chance to become attractive again ... we all can see it in former industrial boom towns as Detroit or Pittsburgh ... where clean coal decrets won´t help, as exiting the Paris Agreement.
The details of how the fees would work are the subject of talks with the city, which gives the museum $27 million in subsidies annually. The city also owns the museum site in Central Park and has approval rights for entrance policies.
Met director and chief executive Thomas Campbell stunned the art world in February by announcing his resignation, amid criticism of the museum’s financial management.
It was clear we were on a path that was not sustainable, and if we didn’t deal with it, it was going to get worse in a hurry,” said Weiss, who took the reins from Campbell and is now the interim CEO.
He blamed the museum’s financial problems on “a perfect storm” of money-sucking factors: too many costly special exhibitions; restaurants and gift shops where revenues declined; and public programming that was overly ambitious.
As part of the MET´s efforts to address a $15 million operating deficit, the museum filed a formal proposal earlier this month with New York City to charge - for the first time in its 147-year history - visitors from outside New York State a mandatory admissions fee. A fee of $25 (for adults), the same as the museum's current suggested contribution, would be in line with admissions fees at other New York art institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, both of which charge $25, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, which charges $22. For the record seven million people who visited the MET in 2016, 67 percent were from out of state, while 39 percent were visitors from abroad.
Admissions fees might help ease the current budget deficit, which was about 5 percent of the $315 million in operating costs in 2016.
Angeleka Kunath, 64, visiting from Hamburg, Germany, said: "I feel foreigners should pay and would gladly do so to keep the Met running at its best. The price is worth it. Art is so important for our lives and humanity; it gives us inspiration it brings people together."
Ken Wilson, 60, who was visiting from Greensboro, North Carolina, said: "I don´t think anyone would have a problem paying to get in. It’s amazing and educational,” he said. But he said it was unfair that New Yorkers would get a discount. And with the search for its new director underway, the museum could maybe discuss cutting the high six-figure salaries of its top executives.
The details of how the fee would work is the subject of talks with the city, which, in addition to providing the museum with $27 million in subsidies annually, owns the museum site in Central Park and has right of approval over its admission policies. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has given general support to the idea, saying it was "fair" for non-state residents to pay something.
Daniel H. Weiss, the MET's president and COO, blamed the museum's financial problems on "a perfect storm" of too many costly special exhibitions, public programming that was overly ambitious, and declining revenues from its restaurants and gift shops. Weiss is serving as interim CEO following the announcement in February of director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell's resignation, effective June 30.
Over the past year, the museum has eliminated about a hundred staff positions through voluntary buyouts and layoffs, slashed the number of special exhibits it stages annually from fifty-five to about forty, and  indefinitely postponed construction of a $600 million wing that had been planned but not fully financed. "Instead, the museum will focus on more pressing capital needs," Weiss told the AP, including spending as much as $100 million to replace a block-long "ocean of bad skylights" built in the 1930s.
"We've had financial challenges - significant ones - over the last couple of years that have culminated over the past year," said Weiss, "and a rather significant need to reorganize the institution and to retrench our finances."


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