New York, Guggenheim raises ticket, charges $30 to enter

If museum visitors in Italy are complaining about a generalized price increase, in New York the cultural institutions are reaching exorbitant prices. Of course, it all has to be weighed against the cost of living , which, in the economic capital of the United States, is much higher than in Italy, but by now those who want to visit all of New York’s museums must prepare for a bloodletting. The latest museum to raise prices was, in the past few hours, the Guggenheim, which has tweaked the admission fee upward, raising it to $30 from the previous $25-a steep increase, by 20 percent, well above the current rate of inflation. The museum wanted, on the one hand, to bring itself in line with average prices in the Big Apple, and on the other hand, to secure more resources to meet rising costs.

Indeed, the Guggenheim has done nothing but follow a trend. In July 2022, the first museum to adjust prices had been the Metropolitan, with an increase from $25 to $30 (but leaving unchanged the policy whereby residents and those studying in the city do not pay a ticket, but leave a free offering, and providing some reductions, namely $22 for seniors and $17 for students). One also pays $30 to enter the Whitney, which is more stingy on reductions: $24 for seniors and students (it does, however, have a time slot, Fridays from 7 to 10 p.m., when one enters on a free-bid basis). MoMA , on the other hand, has a $25 ticket, with reductions to $18 for the over-65s and disabled, and $14 for students. At the Museum of Natural History , on the other hand, the ticket is $28 ($22 for students and over 60, while for residents the rates are $25 and $20). Slightly less expensive is the Neue Galerie ($25), and even cheaper is the New Museum ($18), but in general New York museums are very expensive.

U.S. museums, like those halfway around the world, then face an additional problem: the decrease in visitors compared to the pre-Covid period, and thus lower revenues. Indeed, statistics show that visitor levels in U.S. museums have not yet reached pre-Covid numbers. At the Guggenheim, it has dropped from 1.3 million in 2019 to 750,000 in 2022. A halving that obviously also reflects on the institution’s coffers. Which has therefore seen fit to put a patch on it.

New York, Guggenheim raises ticket, charges $30 to enter

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