There’s been a multimillion-dollar heist at the Met — and it’s being carried out by the museum itself, court papers charge.
Two longtime Metropolitan Museum of Art members say they — and untold millions of others — were duped into paying for admission or memberships because the institution has done such a good job of hiding the fact that it’s supposed to be free six days a week.
The pair, Theodore Grunewald and Patricia Nicholson, want a court order barring the museum — which boasts 6 million visitors a year — from charging admission and “continuing to deceive and defraud the public.”
“Instead of providing free and open access to art for the masses, without regard to socioeconomic status (as originally designed), the MMA has transformed the museum building and museum exhibition halls into an expensive, fee-for-viewing, elite tourist attraction, where only those of financial means can afford to enter a publicly subsidized, city-owned institution,” the suit says.
The museum’s ticket booths list admission prices of $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $12 for students. Under the word “Admissions,” in much smaller letters, is the word “recommended.”
The suit cites a survey Grunewald and Nicholson commissioned that found that 85 percent of nonmembers thought they had to pay to get into the museum, and that 74 percent of respondents were unaware they could get in for free. Fully 65 percent of members said they’d signed up for memberships so they could get in for free.
The pair’s lawyer, Michael Hiller, said the 130-year-old museum “is on Central Park land in a building that was provided by the City of New York. It doesn’t belong to the people who run the Met. It belongs to all of us. When it charges an admission fee, it violates the public trust.”
A rep for the museum, Harold Holzer, called the suit “frivolous.”
“The suggestion we’ve been defrauding the public is ludicrous and outrageous,” he said.
“The suggested admission is $25, but it’s not mandatory,” he said, adding that the museum’s surveys have shown its patrons understand that. “It’s on the signage.”
Holzer said the museum and other local cultural institutions struck a deal with the city more than 40 years ago for a “pay as you wish” admission policy.
Hiller asserts the signage is confusing, to say the least, noting the museum’s listing of “special group rates” as an example.
dareh.gregorian@nypost.com
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