New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is being sued because of their "recommended" admission fee, which some find to be deceptive.
A class-action lawsuit was filed this month against the museum by some who think the Met is scheming by making visitors believe that their suggested $25 admission fee is actually required, USA Today reports.
The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid the admission fee by credit card over the past few years.
According to Met spokesman Harold Holzer, 40 percent of visitors pay the full price and "those who balk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny," says the Associated Press.
"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," attorney Arnold Weiss, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museumgoers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic, told the AP. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."
Holzer said the museum's policy of requiring guests to pay something isn't deceptive and that it had been the policy for more than 40 years. According to Holzer, 11 percent of the museum's operating costs were covered by the admission fee and he estimated that the Met will receive 15-20% of its operating budget from the fees this year while 11 percent comes from city grants.
The Art Newspaper led a survey of 30 top museum in 2011 and found that about half of them don't charge a general admission fee. Those that charge for special exhibits only made less than one percent of the total operating budget from the fee. Those that do charge admission fees earned an average of 9.5%.
"Unlike the United Kingdom, where national museums have free entry, institutions in the U.S. take several different approaches, seemingly based on geography," says the Art Newspaper. "Museums in major cities, especially those that attract tourists, by and large charge for entry. Their counterparts in areas with fewer international tourists or which rely on local visitors are more likely to be free because they need those visitors to return."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
