NYC Museum Accused Of Duping Visitors Into Giving Donations

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City maintains one of the best art collections in the world.  To boot, it offers admission for a donation price of your own choosing.  The minimum donation is a mere penny.  The museum does, however, suggest patrons donate $25.   Apparently, three tourists are not satisfied with their $25 donation because they didn’t read the sign closely enough to realize that it was only a “recommended” donation.  Of course, a lawsuit was necessary to rectify this reprehensible situation. Here we go again.

As you might have guessed, the class-action lawsuit accuses The Met of duping the public into believing that the $25 donation is required for admission.  In so doing, the lawsuit claims that The Met uses misleading marketing and training of cashiers to violate an 1893 New York state law mandating free admission a certain of number of days per week. Apparently, a former museum supervisor will testify on behalf of the Plaintiffs that cashiers were trained to encourage the $25 dollar donation by advising patrons of the museum’s large costs.  Also, in 2010, The Met allegedly changed its signage from “suggested” donation to “recommended” donation.  Outrageous!

The Met has, of course, denied the allegations.  Perhaps the plaintiffs can make an issue of the 1893 law.  Arguably, requiring a one cent donation for admission violates that law.  However, a Met spokesperson claims “[t]he idea that the museum is free to everyone who doesn’t wish to pay has not been in force for nearly 40 years.”  Apparently, in 1970, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs agreed to allow a required donation for admission so long as patrons could determine what amount they wanted to pay.

Regardless of the outcome of the suit, don’t feel too bad for The Met.  It has $2.58 billion investment portfolio and most of its donations come from non-admissions related donations.

On a related note, if you ever find yourself in New York during the spring or early fall, it is well worth it to shell out your penny for admission and head up to The Met’s Roof Garden Café and Martini Bar.  Unfortunately, the beers ($8.75) aren’t as good of a deal as the admission donation.