The Metropolitan Museum of Art Makes a Historic Change to Its Admission Prices (2024)

Attention, New York tourists: bring at least $25 extra cash with you on your visit, because for the first time in decades, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is charging mandatory admission. The museum announced Thursday that beginning March 1 it will charge out-of-towners to visit the museum; out-of-town adults will be required to pay $25, seniors will pay $17, and students $12. Residents of the state of New York and students from New Jersey and Connecticut will continue to qualify for the pay-as-you-wish policy, which the museum created in 1970.

“In recent years, the Museum has experienced a significant decline in revenue generated per visitor under the pay-as-you-wish policy,” the museum said in a press release. The statement continued, saying that today only 17 percent of visitors pay the full suggested admission of $25; the average person pays $9. The updated policy received approval from the Department of Cultural Affairs, which reviews admissions policy changes because the Met’s building is on New York City-owned land.

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an essential part of the fabric of New York City, and its mission to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas is more important today than ever before,” said New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl in the e-mailed statement. “This updated admissions policy will give the Museum a solid foundation to continue to grow its programming and engage New Yorkers from all corners of the city and visitors from around the world, while providing a unique opportunity to direct public resources to underserved communities throughout the five boroughs.”

As Vanity Fair noted last year, the Met is the largest art museum in America and has an endowment of $2.5 billion. Its trustees have a combined net worth of $500 billion.

Despite the wealth behind the museum, the last year has been publicly rocky. In February 2017, its director, Thomas Campbell, resigned following a New York Times article titled “Is the Met Museum ‘a Great Institution in Decline’?”, which questioned the museum’s success after reports of a “$40 million deficit and expansion plans that have been postponed for lack of funding.”

In a statement, the Met said that its new admission policy is similar to plans that other museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, have adopted. The Met noted that it is “preparing a list of forms of identification” that it will accept as proof of in-state or tri-state residency.