BEFORE visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can stroll past the Picassos, Renoirs, Rembrandts and other priceless works, they must first deal with the ticket line, the posted $US25 adult admission and the meaning of the word in smaller type just beneath it: "recommended."
Many people, especially foreign tourists, either don't see it, don't understand it or don't question it. If they ask, they are told the fee is merely a suggested donation: You can pay what you wish but you must pay something.
Some who choose to pay less than the full price pull out a $US10 or $US5 bill. Some fork over a buck or loose change. Those who baulk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny.
"I just asked for one adult general admissions and he just said, '$US25,'" says Richard Johns, a high school maths teacher from Little Rock, Ark., who paid the full price at the museum this past week. "It should be made clear that it is a donation you are required to make. Especially for foreign tourists who don't understand. Most people don't know it."
Confusion over what's required to enter one of the world's great museums, which draws more than six million visitors a year, is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month accusing the Met of scheming to defraud the public into believing the fees are required.
The lawsuit contends that the museum uses misleading marketing and training of cashiers to violate an 1893 New York state law that mandates the public should be admitted for free at least five days and two evenings per week. In exchange, the museum gets annual grants from the city and free rent for its building and land along pricey Fifth Avenue in Central Park.
Met spokesman Harold Holzer denied any deception and said a policy of requiring visitors to pay at least something has been in place for more than four decades. "We are confident that the courts will see through this insupportable nuisance lawsuit."
The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid by credit card over the past few years.
"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," said Arnold Weiss, one of two lawyers who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museum-goers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."
The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's richest cultural institutions, with a $US2.58 billion ($A2.48 billion) investment portfolio, and isn't reliant on admissions fees to pay the majority of its bills. Only about 11 per cent of the museum's operating expenses were covered by admissions charges in the 2012 fiscal year. As a nonprofit organisation, the museum pays no income taxes.
Holzer also noted that in the past fiscal year, 41 per cent of visitors to the Met paid the full recommended admission price - $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students.
A random sampling of visitors leaving the museum found that there was a general awareness that "recommended" implied you could pay less than the posted price.
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