The Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday painted a bleak economic picture, announcing that it had cut its staff by 357 people — 14 percent of its work force — to help close a budget gap.
The job cuts — achieved through layoffs, attrition and voluntary retirement by people accepting severance packages — came primarily as a result of severe losses in the museum’s endowment, said Met Chairman James Houghton.
“This realignment is a painful but unavoidable consequence of the global financial crisis,” Houghton said.
He said the job cuts and retirements would save the museum about $10 million.
The reduction leaves the museum with 2,200 full- and part-time employees.
Houghton said there would be no serious cuts to programming.
Adding to the museum’s fiscal woes, its shops are selling less merchandise, membership is declining, and admission fees — a “suggested” $20 — are down, Houghton said.
At $2.9 billion, the museum’s endowment was one of the largest in the country for an art institution.
But the endowment, which funds a third of the museum’s budget, took an $800 million hit between last summer and Jan. 1.
Officials said the museum is finished cutting jobs under its current plan.
But they could not rule out additional reductions if economic conditions do not improve.
Earlier, the museum closed 15 of its satellite retail shops around the country.