Just Posted: The Year That Was at the Met

Here's something more for you Metropolitan Museumologists (and I know you are legion, because my lead-off piece this week, Who Should Succeed Philippe at the Met?, was the most viewed post in CultureGrrl's illustrious history).

Just posted online: the Met's fiscal 2006 annual report. For all you museum finance aficionados, here's the Report of the Chief Financial Officer and here are the year's financial statements, which compare last year's results with the previous year's. (J. Paul Getty Trust, please copy.)

You will learn that although "fiscal year 2006 was an exceptional year for the Museum," with "strong endowment growth," the museum nevertheless ran its fifth straight annual operating deficit, with last year's amounting to $3.2 million. Measures adopted to stem the hemorrhage include "increasing recommended admission rates [the now infamous $20 fee], successfully using telemarketing to increase membership, continuing to adjust pricing for many fee-based programs, ongoing aggressive fundraising goals for both operating and capital costs, and reaching out to new audiences through innovative marketing efforts." And how long did the efficiency experts struggle to come up with this one: "combining, when feasible, evening events hosted by the development and membership offices to save on catering and security expenses"?

One of CultureGrrl's favorite reads in each year's report is the semi-enlightening Objects Sold or Exchanged During the Year (scroll down to the bottom of the page), which includes only those works "valued in excess of $50,000." This list is considerably longer than usual this year, augmented by disposals of some selections from the 8,500 photographs acquired in 2005 from the Gilman Collection. The auctioned Gilman photographs were never accessioned, because the Met considered them duplicates of images already in its collection.

The Met uaccountably never reports proceeds for individual works, even though they are sold at public auction. CultureGrrl, as you may remember, hit the auction databases a while back, and came up with these high-ticket items, cashed in by the Met during the past fiscal year: Benjamin West's and John Trumbull's "The Battle of La Hogue," sold at Sotheby's, New York, on Jan. 26, 2006 for $632,000; Benjamin West's "Portrait of Peter Beckford," sold at Sotheby's, London, on Nov. 24, 2005 for $76,364. Surprisingly, the Met doesn't include the latter in its list.

All told, the Met raised $26,829,579 from art disposals in fiscal 2006 (ending June 30), compared to $538,404 the previous year (when only two over-$50,000 items made the published list).

The money spent on art acquisitions in 2006 was $34.83 milllion, compared to $99.21 million the previous year (presumably boosted by the Duccio.)

And for those of you who actually care about art, not money, you can peruse the voluminous lists of Departmental Accessions and Exhibitions and Installations.

I'm a museum wonk. I actually read this stuff. Now you can too.