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New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art shed 14 percent of its staff in the year ending in June amid a record operating deficit. At least 250 employees were fired or took buyouts as the museum reported that its investments declined by more than $600 million, or 24 percent. Those numbers and others culled from the 2008-09 annual report posted on the Met’s Web site detail how even the city’s best-attended museum struggled as stocks and fundraising declined. The museum “never expected to find itself facing the unprecedented challenges that were brought on by the recent global financial crisis,” wrote President Emily K. Rafferty and Director Thomas P. Campbell, who took over in January 2009 from its longest-serving boss, Philippe de Montebello. The operating deficit widened to $8.4 million from $1.9 million. Spokesman Harold Holzer said that was a record for the 140-year-old museum. The job cuts were intended to circumvent future annual deficits of $20 million or more, the museum said. Designated gifts by donors plunged by 46 percent to $43.1 million, according to the report. The Met said it had 4.7 million visitors for the year ending in June. That compared with about 4 million at the American Museum of Natural History and 2.8 million at the Museum of Modern Art. The Louvre, in Paris, is the world’s most-visited museum, with annual attendance of 8.5 million in each of the past two years.(Bloomberg)
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