Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Admissions Policy

Rated: Nightmare.

As of March 1, 2018 the Met has instituted a two-tier system. Visitors from outside New York State pay full price. New York State residents and students from the tri-state area follow the old so-called “Pay-as-you-wish” [sic] system:

https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2018/admissionspolicy

But the reality is, the salespersons will not accept less than a dollar. They will not tell you this outright, instead they’ll initiate negotiations along the lines of “how much do you wish to pay?”

Bring a dollar, because they’ll claim they can’t make change. And bring ID; there used to be a list posted of acceptable forms of identification. (Library card, bill with a current address, etc.), but I haven’t it seen it lately.

And stay away from the desk that has a supervisor hovering nearby, they’re there to see that the salesperson extracts the maximum from you, or finds an excuse not to honor your ID. As one plaintiff in the 2013 case against the Met put it, if the Museum wasn’t so sneaky the lines wouldn’t be so long to begin with.

And let us know your own experience in the comments section below.

August 31, 2023