At the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), caution is advised. The New York establishment should not reopen its doors before mid-August, or "perhaps a few weeks later" with reduced hours and no guided tours to maintain social distancing, the museum said on Tuesday. The Met has thus chosen to postpone its reopening date by a month and a half, initially set for July 1.
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The institution, closed since March 13, is the first major museum in the city to announce a reopening date. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet formally announced a deadline for ending the confinement. His plan calls for a four-phase reopening for each region of the state, the hardest hit in the country by the Covid-19 pandemic. The restarting of artistic activities only takes place in the fourth and last phase. With more than 20,000 dead, New York City has yet to be allowed to enter the first phase.
No conferences and concerts in 2020
In addition to the adapted schedules and the absence of guided tours, the Metropolitan Museum will also not organize conferences or concerts until the end of 2020, in order to avoid gatherings conducive to the spread of the new coronavirus . The reopening will mark the official start of the exhibition "Making the Met", which celebrates the museum's 150th anniversary and was originally scheduled to open on March 30.
"As we go through a difficult and uncertain period, we are encouraged by the prospect of this day when we can once again allow everyone to enjoy the Met's collection and exhibitions , " said its president, Daniel Weiss, quoted on Tuesday. in a press release. Assuming a reopening in July, the museum predicted a loss of nearly $ 100 million from the closure, according to an internal document cited by the New York Times . 81 civil servants have already been dismissed.
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The museum also announced Tuesday, unsurprisingly, the definitive cancellation of the Met gala, worldly event of the year in New York, which had already been postponed. The exhibition, usually opened immediately after this gala, organized by the Costume Institute, will finally start on October 29. This year, it is devoted to the relation of fashion to time and entitled About Time: Fashion and Duration (about time: fashion and duration).
