The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced late last week that it would be temporarily closing all three of its locations in NYC—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters—in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Today, they acknowledged the stark economic reality of what lies ahead for them: the museum is projecting a $100 million loss in revenues in the coming months, as well as the likelihood of layoffs.
“This is an extraordinarily challenging time for us all,” said a letter sent to department heads signed by Daniel H. Weiss, president and CEO of the museum, and Max Hollein, the director. “As staff members of The Met we all have a profound responsibility to protect and preserve the treasured institution we inherited.”
The letter, which was first reported on by the NY Times, lays out the three step plan they have in place to try to deal with the current situation. First, all staff members will work from home and continue to be paid through at least April 4th while the museum evaluates possible furloughs, layoffs and voluntary retirements. Then from April to July, they will evaluate how to control spending and reduce operating costs, including freezing discretionary expenditures and hiring (the letter comes with the assumption that they will be reopened by July). And from July to October, they plan on “reopening with a reduced program and lower cost structure that anticipates lower attendance for at least the next year due to reduced global and domestic tourism and spending."
Weiss told the Times that layoffs were likely inevitable: “We’re going to have to do it like everybody is going to have to do it,” he said. “It’s a very disheartening thing.”
Before closing, it was reported that The Met had two employees who had showed symptoms of the virus. The Met had previously closed for two days on only two occasions: after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy.
Before coronavirus hit, the museum was projecting $3-4 million in deficits for this year; now, they expect $60 million in losses through the end of the fiscal year on June 30th, plus another $40 million after that (which, again, assumes they'll be reopened by July). The museum has an operating budget of $320 million and an endowment of about $3.3 billion which it is hoping not to dip into, but they at least have that safety net. The really terrifying thing is that all the other museums in the city will not necessarily be able to withstand such huge financial hits.
“Many museums are using any reserves they have to get through the next month,” Laura Lott, the president and chief executive of the American Alliance of Museums, told the Times. She estimates that one-third of museums in America which have already closed may never reopen. “This situation is by far more dire than anything I have experienced in my 25 years of being an arts finance professional,” she said.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, told Gothamist last week that there were very difficult decisions ahead for cultural institutions like museums. "This really undermines a lot about the culture, the soul of a city," he said. "To close the Louvre in Paris, it's a big deal. As this pandemic expands and intrudes increasingly into our lives, I think there's going to be changes made that make us really potentially very uncomfortable."
