Photo Credit: Metropolitan Opera House by ProfessorCornbread / CC by 4.0
The Metropolitan Opera is looking into multiple funding options, including the sale of its iconic paintings, following a failed agreement with Saudi Arabia.
New York’s Metropolitan Opera is looking into different funding options following a failed multi-million-dollar funding agreement with Saudi Arabia. These include the potential sale of the iconic Marc Chagall paintings that have hung in its lobby for six decades.
The Saudi government reportedly nixed a deal that would have seen the opera company receiving up to $200 million over the next eight years. In return, the Met would have sent its cast to perform at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh for three weeks each February.
The deal was agreed to last year, but no commitment was signed. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said that Saudi authorities cited economic concerns related to the war in Iran and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.
Gelb said he was told that the nation, which earlier this month also announced that it would be ending its investment in LIV Golf, was “only doing the projects that are essential.” The Met deal, unfortunately, “falls outside what is essential.”
As a result, the Met faces a $30 million deficit as of July 31, the end of its fiscal year, with potentially greater losses beyond that. The collapse of the Saudi deal was “a very significant disappointment,” but that the Met is “determined to find a sustainable path forward.”
Among the financing options the institution is looking into include a similar deal with another country; the sale of naming rights to the opera house; and the sale of its iconic Chagall paintings, commissioned when the building was constructed in 1966.
According to Sotheby’s, the paintings, titled The Sources of Music and The Triumph of Music, are valued collectively at $55 million. A potential buyer would have to agree to the condition that the paintings remain in place during the opera season, with a plaque announcing the donation.
