NYC’s MET museum to get whopping $25M taxpayer-funded LED lighting upgrade

Watt does it cost?!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is slated to get a $25 million LED lighting upgrade – with taxpayers footing the bill.

The Big Apple pays for energy bills as part of a unique partnership with the MET and other members of its “Cultural Institutions Group” — including the Bronx Zoo, American Museum of Natural History and Brooklyn Academy of Music — for nearly 150 years, a rep said.

The world-renowned Upper East Side museum — which is privately owned and operated and has an endowment estimated at $3 billion — is set to get nearly 20,000 “state-of-the-art sustainable” LED light fixtures across its 324 galleries.

The new lights are meant to “significantly” improve visual clarity and preservation of the art collection, as well as maximize energy efficiency to cut operating and maintenance costs, the museum said in a statement.

The New York Power Authority will be responsible for the installation, replacing 16 lightning control systems across 2 million square feet in the most-visited art museum in the nation, officials said.

The project — expected to be complete by 2028 — will be funded by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services using money from city capital funding, a rep said.

“Investing in energy efficiency is a critical part of our commitment to a more sustainable and resilient New York City, and this new effort at the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art is one for the ages,” said DCAS Commissioner Louis A. Molina. 

“These upgrades will help preserve invaluable works of art while advancing the city’s decarbonization goals, demonstrating the power of collaboration in building a greener future,” he said.

Similar energy efficiency upgrades at the Bronx Zoo and Bronx Museum of the Arts were also announced, a rep said.

The city-led initiative is part of an effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions from government operations in half by 2030, as mandated by the city’s climate policy, Local Law 97, of 2019.

The new LED lights will help to preserve the art by emitting less waste heat than its current system, the museum said.

The Met’s greenhouse gas emissions are also expected to be lowered as well in what is set to be the equivalent of removing over 400 cars from the road.

“We are deeply grateful for the enormously generous contributions of DCAS and NYPA for this important project, which supports The Met’s commitment to sustainability and our mission to connect all people–including our millions of yearly visitors from across New York City and beyond–to creativity, knowledge and ideas,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO.

Previous funding from DCAS across 36 projects at the MET has already saved the museum $2.67 million in annual energy costs, a rep said.