Record deficit forces cuts at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art shed 14% of its staff in the year ending in June amid a record operating deficit.

At least 250 employees were fired or took buyouts as the museum reported that its investments declined by more than $600 million, or 24%.

Those numbers and others culled from the 2008-09 annual report posted on the Met’s website detail how even New York City’s best-attended museum struggled as stocks and fundraising declined.

The operating deficit widened to $8.4 million from $1.9 million. Spokesman Harold Holzer said that was a record for the 140-year-old museum. The job cuts were intended to circumvent future annual deficits of $20 million or more, the museum said.

The Met said it had 4.7 million visitors for the year ending in June. That compared with about 4 million at the American Museum of Natural History and 2.8 million at the Museum of Modern Art.