Met Museum Sets Record With 7.35 Million Visitors in a Year

NEW YORK — Due in part to the blockbuster exhibition on Michelangelo’s drawings, and despite a new mandatory admission fee for non-New Yorkers effective in March, the Metropolitan Museum of Art set yet another attendance record for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, attracting more than 7.35 millionvisitors to its three locations — at Fifth Avenue, the Cloisters and the Met Breuer — compared to 7 million last year.

In announcing the attendance numbers Thursday, the museum also said it had raised more than $250 million from donations, membership and government support, up about 7 percent over last year. That includes about $80 million from Florence Irving, a trustee, and her late husband, Herbert Irving.

“We don’t chase visitor numbers, but they are one sign among many of whether we are doing a good job in serving our mission and the needs of the public,” said Daniel H. Weiss, the Met’s president and chief executive, in a telephone interview. Max Hollein, the Met’s new director, starts in August.

Weiss also said he was pleased to see that the new admissions policy had not affected the museum’s position as New York City’s most visited tourist attraction for domestic and international audiences. “There is no evidence of any diminution in visitor numbers,” he said. “Revenues are hitting the targets that we set — I think people understand it.”

Since the 2015-16 fiscal year, when Met attendance rose 6.35 percent over 2014-15, the rate of increase has slowed a bit each year. This year’s attendance was up 4.29 percent over the previous period.

Attendance at the Met Breuer, whose building the Met has leased from the Whitney Museum of American Art for eight years, was 445,000 this year, down from 505,000 last year, the Met said, adding that this was a typical slight drop for institutions after they open and still more than the Whitney’s annual average of 350,000 in the space. The Met Breuer opened in 2016 in the Whitney’s former home.