Footfall has fallen significantly this year at the Met, and the museum is facing losses of $150 million
Credit: Angela Weiss / AFP
Wealthy trustees of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art are being urged to stump up tens of millions of dollars so that the gallery is not forced to sell precious works to cover its pandemic losses.
The “Met”, as it is commonly known, is the largest art museum in the United States, but is facing a potential funding shortfall of $150 million due to a drop in visitor numbers and merchandise sales in the past year.
Some of its most famous works include Vincent Van Gough’s “self-portrait with a straw hat” and Claude Monet’s “Bridge over a pond of water lilies,” while it is also home to pieces by Raphael, Goya, Degas, Rembrandt, Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock.
Discussions are underway over whether the museum should sell some of its artworks to plug the gap, but trustees including Vogue Editor Dame Anna Wintour, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and billionaire financier Alejandro Santo Domingo are being urged to help out.
So far, trustees have raised $25 million to help the cause, while executives have taken pay cuts and 80 people have been laid off.
Anna Wintour, left, one of the museum's trustees pictured at the Costume Institue Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside Tom Ford, creative director of Gucci Group, and Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Adrien Brody
Credit: AP Photo/The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Don Pollard)
But art critics have called the efforts “pathetic,” and pointed to the wealth of the dozens of board members as well as the organisation’s $3.3 billion endowment.
Writing in the LA Times, Pulitzer Prize winner Christopher Knight said: “I don’t know how many billionaires sit on the board of trustees, arguably the most prestigious and desirable in Manhattan, but I am comfortable going with the adjective “plenty.” Time to start writing lots more checks, or time to step aside.”
Until last year, any money raised by art sales had to be used for new purchases, but new guidelines drawn up by the Association of Art Museum Directors say that the money can now be used to “pay for expenses associated with the direct care of collections.”
Some museums have already taken advantage, with the Brooklyn Museum raising $31 million, but there have been plenty of detractors.
Thomas Campbell, a former director of the Met said in an Instagram post: “While this is well meant, the danger is that deaccessioning for operating costs will become the norm, especially if leading museums like the Met follow suit.
“Deaccessioning will be like crack cocaine to the addict – a rapid hit, that becomes a dependency.”
The Met is home to a Van Gogh self-portrait, similar to this one
Credit: EPA/KOEN VAN WEEL
An online petition has been signed by nearly 10,000 people which pleads with the board not to sell any of its artwork.
“The Met’s board is responsible for the institution,” the petition says.
“It is chock-full of billionaires. We call on the Met’s board to do the job they signed up for: to give, to support the institution.”
But the plans are under consideration and will be discussed at a board meeting next month.
“This is the time when we need to keep our options open,” said Max Hollein, the Met’s director, in an interview with the New York Times.
“None of us have a full perspective on how the pandemic will play out. It would be inappropriate for us not to consider it, when we’re still in this foggy situation.”
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