Butt out.
That’s the message a Manhattan judge had for five art lovers who sued the Metropolitan Museum claiming the Fifth Avenue institution violated a lease with the city that required free admission.
“Nothing in the lease suggests the city intended for members of the public who disagree with the city’s policies regarding the museum to be allowed to circumvent the city’s wishes by suing the museum directly,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich ruled.
The decision, released Wednesday, came less than a week after the city amended its lease with the Met, allowing the museum to charge admissions.
Kornreich’s decision notes the recent changes. She calls a requirement for public approval of lease amendments “ludicrous.”
In the original 1878 lease the city gave the museum Central Park real estate and taxpayer subsidies in exchange for free entrance for the public four days a week.
The judge also argued that the lease is like any other business arrangement.
“There is nothing special about the museum’s lease that differentiates it from a conventional commercial lease, other than the fact that the city is the landlord and the tenant, the museum, is allowed to occupy the premises rent free,” she writes in the 19-page decision.
Justice Kornreich wrote that the museum is essentially free because visitors only have to donate one cent.
“All members of the public can afford to visit the museum under the present scheme,” Kornreich notes, “Admission to the museum is de facto free for all.”
Michael Hiller, who represents the visitors in the suit, said he planned to appeal.
“We are disappointed by the decision,” he said.
The five visitors sued the museum in two separate filings over the past year.
Kornreich declined to dismiss their remaining charges that the museum strong-arms visitors into pay the hefty $25 “suggested” donation.
Hiller said he will continue to pursue those claims.