Amid mounting financial issues, the Metropolitan Opera, the largest performing arts organisation in the United States, announced on 19 January that it would lay off 22 workers, temporarily cut the salaries of its executives and explore a plan to sell its towering, site-specific Marc Chagall murals.<\/p>\n
The two multi-storey, site-specific murals that Chagall created for the Met, The Triumph of Music and The Sources of Music (both 1966), have been collectively appraised at $55m by Sotheby\u2019s. If they are offered for sale, it will be under the condition that the buyer leaves them in place. The new owner, in the event of a sale, would be identified by an adjacent donation plaque.<\/p>\n
During a previous era of financial hardship, in 2009, the Met Opera put the murals\u2014then appraised at around $20m in total<\/a>\u2014up as collateral for a loan.<\/p>\n According to The New York Times<\/a>, the Met Opera\u2019s general manager, Peter Gelb, also stated that the venue was postponing a new production from the forthcoming season,\u00a0Modest Mussorgsky\u2019s Khovanshchina. Gelb maintains that these steps were taken to address revenue issues downwind of a previously announced $200m deal with Saudi Arabia that made headlines<\/a> last September. As part of that agreement the Saudis committed to subsidise the Met in exchange for the company coming to Riyadh to perform at the Royal Riyadh Opera House three weeks out of the year in winter. News of the alliance sparked criticism, given the Saudi crown\u2019s history of human rights abuses, but Gelb defended the merger, emphasising the need to stablise the opera company in an arts ecosystem marked by declining donations and ticket sales. Now, the payout from that agreement has seemingly been delayed requiring further belt-tightening from the Met.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the Saudis have had to recalibrate their budgets because of their own economic concerns,\u201d Gelb told the Times. \u201cI\u2019ve been assured that it\u2019s going to go forward. But we have been waiting for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n The Met, which has an annual operating budget of $330m, drew $120m from its endowment last year to keep up with costs, and Gelb has made it clear that further steps may be taken to recoup funds. The Met is considering following in the footsteps of its Lincoln Center neighbours\u2014the New York Philaharmonic\u2019s David Geffen Hall and the New York City Ballet\u2019s David H. Koch Center\u2014by selling the naming rights to its theatre.<\/p>\n