Background
Art museums have struggled to meet their operating costs for years, especially as many have "suggested donations" rather than entrance fees, or have no entrance fees whatsoever, relying on endowments and membership dues. In 2006, this began to change at many museums: on 3 June 2006, the Art Institute of Chicago announced that its suggested donation of $12 would become mandatory, and in July of that year the Metropolitan Museum of Art raised its suggested admission fee from $15 to $20.
On 1 October 2007, the board of Randolph College decided to auction four works from its collection in order to raise funds for the college: Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks; Men of the Docks, by George Bellows; Through the Arroyo, by Ernest Hennings; and Troubadour, by Rufino Tamayo. The sale was halted in November when a court injunction against it was granted to a group of alumnae and others. When this coalition raised only half of the required one million dollar bond, the court lifted the injunction and the college proceeded to sell Troubador at Christie's in April 2008. The other paintings are currently held in a Christie's warehouse, to be sold when markets rebound.
By October 2008, museum directors could clearly see that the crisis would greatly affect the operation of their museums. After Lehman Brothers, a major corporate sponsor of the MOMA, filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, MOMA director Glenn D. Lowry was quoted as saying "We know there’s a storm at sea and we know it’s going to hit land and it could get ugly".
Read more about this topic: Effects Of The Late-2000s Financial Crisis On Museums
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