The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just announced it’s laying off three top execs. They are Cynthia Round, the museum’s senior vice president for marketing and external relations, and Susan Sellers, head of design, as well as chief digital officer, Sree Sreenivasan.
The museum is facing a $10 million deficit, they say.
And yet I reported back in May that Anna Wintour’s annual Met Ball for the Anna Wintour Costume Institute has costs that run close to $4 million a year— separate from tax deductible contributions to the museum.
I don’t know what the other two are paid, but according to the Museum’s 2014 Form 990 (the most recent available, which is really for 2013), Round was getting $225,000. That was nothing compared to Chief Investment Officer Suzanne Brenner ($1.4 mil) or Deputy Investment Officer Lauren Meserve ($1.1 million) or Director and CEO Thomas Campbell (about $1.2 million).
But at least those people have something to do with art at the museum. The Met Ball– which was like a Halloween parade this year– has really become an act of ego. And the $3 million plus costs are certainly contributing to that $10 mil deficit.
