Mondays are now for masterpieces.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open its doors on Mondays for the first time in 42 years, delighting both aesthetes — and tourists.
The new hours begin on July 1, officials announce yesterday.
“Art is a 7-day-a-week passion, and we want the Met to be accessible whenever visitors have the urge to experience this great museum,” director Thomas Campbell said.
“Last year we had record-breaking attendance of 6.28 million visitors and yet were turning away many thousands more on Mondays, when we have traditionally been closed.”
The museum also revealed that on July 1, it will open half hour later at 10 a.m. each day.
Closing times will remain the same: 9pm Friday and Saturday and 5:30 pm Sunday through Thursday.
“We look forward to welcoming visitors to our encyclopedic collections, robust exhibition program, and wide-ranging educational offerings nearly every day of the year,” Campbell said.
The “suggested” admission price of $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for kids will not change.
The Met is currently fighting off lawsuits claiming that they don’t properly advertise the gratis option and that duped art lovers unknowingly shell out the full price.
The new schedule will go into effect at the Met’s main building on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street in Manhattan and at The Cloisters museum in northern Manhattan.
The museum was last open on Mondaysin 1971 before switching to the six-day schedule.
It introduced a popular promotion in recent years that opened the museum on Mondays that fell on some holidays.
The facility is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious institutions, housing nearly two million works spanning 5,000 years from every corner of the world.
“We look forward to welcoming visitors to our encyclopedic collections, robust exhibition program, and wide-ranging educational offerings nearly every day of the year,” Campbell said.