[NEWS] Prado Museum Reports 75 Percent Loss in Revenue in 2020


June 29, 2021 

Visitors at the reopening of the Prado after lockdown in 2020. ELENA SHESTERNINA/SPUTNIK VIA AP 



A fuller picture of how Covid-19 lockdowns affected museum revenue is beginning to emerge, with international museums starting to reveal just how much they lost last year. The Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid reported on Monday that it sustained a 75.5 percent decrease in revenue in 2020, ending the financial year with a loss of 18.5 million euros ($22 million).

 

The lockdown provoked an unprecedented drop-off in attendance, with an 84 percent decline in ticket sales and a 90 percent decline in sales at the museum’s store and restaurants.





Museum Louvre (AFP/Francois Guillot) 



The Prado was hardly the only European museum to sustain major losses in revenue in 2020. The Musée du Louvre—the world’s most popular art museum—saw 72% drop in visitors last year. To mitigate losses, some have resorted to creative means. The Uffizi Galleries in Florence began minting NFTs of Renaissance artworks in its holdings to soften the blow of massive drops in attendance.


Within U.S. museums, the effects of the pandemic were equally destructive. Three quarters of American institutions saw their operating income diminish by 40 percent or more. Nearly half of respondents in a 2021 survey conducted by the American Alliance of Museums cut staff during the pandemic. On average, these museums reduced their workforce by 29 percent. Only 44 percent of respondents expected to rehire lost workers.





Pedestrians wearing face masks cross a street in the city center, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Barcelona, Spain, 2021. 
REUTERS/Albert Gea 




Slowly, institutions in the U.S. have begun to recover. According to the same AAM survey, only 15 percent of museums remain at high financial risk. When a similar survey was conducted in October, a third of museum directors believed their institutions might close permanently.

 

Nevertheless, both the government funding of 15.2 million euros and the corporate and individual support of 3.8 million euros remained consistent with prior years.

 

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