The collateral damage from Wall Street's troubles has hit far and wide, with some effects obvious and others not. One of its more apparent side effects is what market losses are doing to institutions that rely on endowments and charitable giving. The latest institution to feel that pain is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which announced Monday that it would be cutting 14% of its staff, or 357 workers, to close a budget gap.
"This realignment is a painful but unavoidable consequence of the global financial crisis," Met chairman James Houghton told the New York Post. The museum's endowment, which at $2.9 billion is the largest in the country for an art institution, received a haircut of $800 million, or a third of its value, between summer 2008 and Jan. 1. The endowment funds a third of the museum's budget.
The Met is not the only museum that is experiencing financial woes and being forced into massive restructuring. Others include: the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. - Gerald Magpily
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