Narrowing Its Deficit, the Metropolitan Museum Gives Big Raises to Top Executives—But Ends One of the Director’s Cushiest Perks

Last October, the Metropolitan Museum of Art quietly sold a
pricey gem of Manhattan real estate: the Fifth Avenue apartment
that was formerly used for executive
housing, including by ex-director and CEO Thomas Campbell. It
fetched a hefty $5.6 million, according to property records.

But the sale does not mean that the museum—which has faced
rocky financial waters in
recent years—is dramatically cutting back on executive perks.
Top employees have received significant salary increases within the
past year, even as the institution reported a $1.8 million deficit
in the most recent fiscal year. (The multimillion-dollar windfall
from the apartment sale will not show up in the Met’s reported
income until its next annual report since it took place after the
end of the 2018–19 fiscal year.)

The Met’s current financial state marks a relative improvement
from the previous year’s deficit of $8.3 million, and a vast
improvement from the $23 million deficit in 2016, when overspending
on ambitious expansion plans and pricey digital initiatives forced
the museum to shed around 90 employees through a combination of
buyouts and layoffs.

The highest paid executive in the most recent financial year,
according to tax filings, was chief investment officer Lauren
Meserve, whose total compensation package was worth $1.6 million,
up 8.3 percent from 2017–18, when she made $1.47 million. The next
best-paid exec is CEO Daniel Weiss, whose total pay package was
worth $1.25 million in 2018–19, a 25 percent increase over the
previous year, when he made $1 million.

“[W]e continue to make progress in our work toward a
balanced budget in fiscal year 2020,” the report stated. “We will
continue to focus on revenue and fundraising growth,
funding goals, endowment reallocations, and further
procurement and vacancy savings. The Met is in a much stronger
financial position than it was in 2016, and we are ready to
move forward with our long-term goals—investing in programs, staff,
and infrastructure—by maintaining a healthy budget and
prioritizing our investments with a balanced perspective.”

Meanwhile, for Max Hollein, the director who took the helm at
the start of the 2019, the tax filing lists total compensation of
$764,093 for six months of work.

The raises may come as an unwelcome surprise to some museum
personnel. “My god do I loathe them,” one anonymous current
staffer told Artnet News. “In all staff meetings, they’re very
‘waah waah’ about the budget deficit.”

When former director Thomas Campbell stepped down from his role
in June 2017, his last reported compensation package was worth over
$3 million. He also lived in the Fifth Avenue apartment during his
tenure as director, which began in 2009. (Notably, Hollein and
Weiss split the role once held by Campbell, so it makes sense that
their individual pay packages would be worth less.)

Still, the Met’s current pay levels are in the range of other
top museum leaders in New York City. Richard Armstrong, the
director of the Guggenheim, reported a total compensation package
worth $1.4 million in the 2018–19 financial year, while Glenn Lowry
made $2.3 million in salary, bonus, and other benefits in 2017–18,
according to the most recent publicly available tax records.

The Met’s second-floor apartment, which is directly across from
the museum, between 81st and 82nd Streets, was sold to Shelley and
Gilbert Harrison, who traded down from their longtime 11th floor
apartment in the same building, a1aazccording to PropertyShark.
Their apartment sold for $19 million.

The sale of the apartment had been under consideration as far
back as March 2018, a museum representative told Artnet News at the
time.

The Met declined to comment on how decisions about pay raises
for top executives are made.

The post Narrowing Its Deficit, the Metropolitan Museum
Gives Big Raises to Top Executives—But Ends One of the Director’s
Cushiest Perks appeared first on artnet News.