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# Two Met Members Sue Museum for "Continuing to Deceive and Defraud the Public" Over Admission Fees
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/two-met-members-sue-museum-for-continuing-to-deceive-and-defraud-the-public-over-admission-fees/
- Published: 2012-11-15T22:37:12.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:36:04.000Z
- Description: Ok, we may think high museum admission fees are ridiculous but this new suit by two longtime Metropolitan Museum of Art members is over the top.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museums, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/11/metmuseum-suggested-320.jpg "metmuseum-suggested-320")](http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/78l7/?ref=hyperallergic.com)

Ok, we may think high museum admission fees are ridiculous but this new suit by two longtime Metropolitan Museum of Art members is over the top.

Two plaintiffs, Theodore Grunewald and Patricia Nicholson, [according to *The New York Post*](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/met%5Fin%5Ffee%5Ffor%5F8t0Qnzz6dfnQJ1W0RXLD6L?ref=hyperallergic.com), say that “they — and untold millions of others — were duped into paying for admission or memberships because the institution has done such a good job of hiding the fact that it’s supposed to be free six days a week.”

“Instead of providing free and open access to art for the masses, without regard to socioeconomic status (as originally designed), the MMA has transformed the museum building and museum exhibition halls into an expensive, fee-for-viewing, elite tourist attraction, where only those of financial means can afford to enter a publicly subsidized, city-owned institution,” the suit says.

Yes, the admission to the Met is “suggested” — and written in a rather small typeface — but what do you expect the museum to do, write “IT’S FREE!” in big block letters? Hell, we’d feel like chumps if we gave anything with a sign like that.

This suit, from what we can tell, is the ultimate in legal trolling but we shouldn’t be surprised. This is America after all.

Next, let’s go after the city parks for not making it clear when we CAN walk on the grass. Damn, enviro-fascists!