The Metropolitan Museum of Art, situated on Parks Department property in Central Park, is facing two multimillion-dollar lawsuits by the public in Manhattan Supreme Court protesting the museum’s practice of soliciting the $25 entry fee. The original six-page handwritten 1878 agreement, states the museum "be kept open and accessible to the public free of charge from 10 o’clock until half an hour before sunset” Wednesday through Saturday.
Museum lawyers admitted there was no “formal amendment” that allows them to charge an admission fee.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art faces a potential $40 million payout if it loses the suits which seek compensation for members and visitors who paid with a credit card in the past few years. A museum spokesman declined to provide a copy of the agreement with the city that dictates fee policies in exchange for generous subsidies and free rent at the Central Park site.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge recently ruled the Bloomberg administration, using Park Enforcement Patrol officers, illegally issued hundreds of thousands worth of tickets to disabled veteran vendors in front of the museum.
- Geoffrey Croft
Manhattan
The Metropolitan Museum of Art should not be allowed to charge patrons admission – and has been misleading the public about why it’s allowed to accept fees in the first place, according to city records obtained by the Post.
The Fifth Avenue institution recently argued it was granted permission to solicit $25 entry fees “after the museum received approval from New York City’s Administrator of Parks ... more than four decades ago.”
But the Post obtained all records governing the admissions policy between the Met and the city going back over 100 years, to determine if that document actually exists.
It does not.
In the original six-page handwritten 1878 agreement, the city gives the museum use of the Fifth Avenue building.
In exchange, it requires the museum “be kept open and accessible to the public free of charge from 10 o’clock until half an hour before sunset” Wednesday through Saturday.
Subsequent documents show that there were discussions about instituting fees between the city and the museum during Mayor John Lindsay’s term in the 1970s, but nothing was ever approved.
The Met is currently facing two multimillion-dollar lawsuits by members protesting the museum’s practice of soliciting the $25 entry fee.
Museum lawyers admitted there was no “formal amendment” to the original lease, but said in court papers that the city has long been aware of their “pay-what-you-wish” admission policy.
Read More:
The Met’s art of $$ deception
New York Post - April 27, 2013 - By Julia Marsh
Metropolitan Museum of Art Sued Over "Voluntary Admissions"
A Walk In The Park - March 18, 2013
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