July 18, 2006
Neue Galerie wants $50 for a less-crowded viewing
 If there was ever a time to accuse a museum of pretentiousness, this may be it.
The Neue Galerie is charging as much as $50 to see a painting. Well, five paintings to be precise, but the absurd price is based on the new lore surrounding one in particular. And the stir is mainly about the price the museum's founder paid -- $135 million -- making it the highest price ever for a painting.
The star of the new exhibition "Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer" is the gold-flecked portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, I, which was recently ordered returned to Bloch-Bauer's neice after a long possession in Austrian hands as a leftover gift from the Nazis.
Last month she sold the portrait to Ronald S. Lauder, chairman of the Estée Lauder cosmetics company and a past ambassador to Austria. In 2001, he started the Neue Galerie, a small Upper East Side museum focusing on early 20th century German and Austrian art and design.
General admission to the Neue Galerie is $15, or $10 for seniors and students. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Unless they are under 12, in which case they are completely prohibited from entering the Neue Galerie.
Normally the museum is closed every Tuesday and Wednesday, but the demand pricing has come into play for one of those days:
Special Wednesday Viewing
because of high demand, the Neue Galerie will be open an additional day, on Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. throughout the exhibition. Admission for this private viewing day is free for members, $50 for the general public. The price for a membership carries its own sticker shock, considering it's about double all the other museums in the city. An individual membership costs $275, of which $220 is tax deductible. Tht gets you in free, plus one guest pass.
And unlike many other museums in New York, the Neue does not offer any free days with reduced or pay-what-you-wish admission.
Only last week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art raised eyebrows when it said it will increase its suggested admission fee to $20 from $15 starting August 1. (Since it's suggested, you can actually pay nothing.) The Met has opened its doors on rare Mondays for anyone willing to pay $50 for semi-private viewings of specific exhibitions, such as the drawings of Vincent van Gogh and Peter Paul Rubens. That policy was the Neue's inspiration, a museum representative told the Sun.
The Bloch-Bauer exhibition runs through September 18. The Neue Galerie is located at 1048 Fifth Ave., at 86th Street, map.
Earlier: Met Museum to raise suggested entry fee to $20
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NY's best (affordable) membership privileges
Neue Galerie to get $135 million Klimt painting
July 18, 2006 08:17 AM in Museums, Sightsology, Upper East Side
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