By Madelia Hickman Ring

NEW YORK CITY – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the first of New York City’s museums to close out of concern for the COVID-19 pandemic, is one of the latest in the city to take the additional cost-cutting steps of laying off staff and reducing salaries. The affected staff worked in the museum’s visitor services and retail departments. Salary reductions will affect museum management, with both director Max Hollein and president and chief executive officer Daniel H. Weiss taking a 20 percent cut in pay and 11 other executives seeing a ten percent reduction in income. The museum had initially announced that it would pay all staff through April 4; it recently extended that to May 2. Expecting to be closed through July, the museum anticipates a budgetary shortfall of $100 million.

In a statement published on ArtNews, Weiss said, “Our two primary objectives continue to be doing all that we can to support the health and safety of our community and to protect the long-term financial health of the museum. The arts and culture community is facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in our lifetimes. On this our 150th anniversary year, we take strength from the resilience and vision that built our beloved institution. While we are not immune from the impact of this pandemic, the Met is a strong and enduring institution and will remain one.”