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Culture
文艺版块
Museums
博物馆
A different sort of art heist
别样的艺术盗窃
Museums are raising their ticket prices. How high can they go?
博物馆的门票在涨价。价格能涨到多高？
“It’s almost a moral duty that museums should be free,” said Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
“博物馆应该免费，这几乎是一种道德责任。”纽约现代艺术博物馆馆长格伦·劳里说。
That was in 2002, when a ticket to moma cost $12 (around $19 in today’s prices).
这句话是在2002年说的，当时现代艺术博物馆的门票为12美元(约等于现在的19美元)。
In October MOMA started charging $30, the latest in a series of price rises.
去年10月份，现代艺术博物馆开始收取30美元的门票费用，这是一系列涨价中的最新一次涨价。
MOMA is not the only museum raising the cost of admission.
现代艺术博物馆并不是唯一一家提高门票价格的博物馆。
The Metropolitan Museum in New York ended its longstanding “pay what you will” policy for out-of-town visitors in 2018 and raised general admission for them to $30 in 2022.
2018年，纽约大都会博物馆对外地游客取消了长期的“票价自定”政策，并在2022年将外地游客的普通门票价格提高到30美元。
Last summer the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Museum all followed suit, bumping a standard ticket from $25 to $30.
去年夏天，旧金山现代艺术博物馆、费城艺术博物馆、惠特尼博物馆和古根海姆博物馆纷纷效仿，将标准门票从25美元上涨到30美元。
Museum staff complain of climbing costs and a case of “long covid”.
博物馆工作人员抱怨不断攀升的成本和“久病不愈的新冠”。
In America only a third of museums have met or surpassed pre-pandemic visitor numbers.
在美国，只有三分之一的博物馆达到或超过了疫情前的参观人数。
Higher energy and labour costs have pushed up ticket prices in Europe, too.
更高的能源成本和劳动力成本也推高了欧洲的票价。
In January the Berlin State Museums, the Louvre and the Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, raised the price of general-admission tickets by 20%, 29% and 17%, respectively.
今年1月，柏林国家博物馆、卢浮宫、梵蒂冈博物馆（包括西斯廷教堂）分别将普通门票价格提高了20%、29%和17%。
Prices have remained stable only in Asia and the Middle East, where museums are younger and state funding is especially generous.
只有亚洲和中东的博物馆门票价格保持稳定，那里的博物馆成立时间较晚，国家提供的资金特别慷慨。
Ticket fees may seem high, particularly in destination cities where tourists are not likely to be dissuaded by spending a few more dollars.
门票费可能看起来很高，特别是在旅游城市，游客不太可能因为要多花几美元就不去博物馆。
But “whatever museums charge, it is not covering their operating costs,” says Javier Jimenez, a director at Lord Cultural Resources, a consulting firm.
但是咨询公司“主文化资源”的主管哈维尔·希门尼斯说：“无论博物馆收费多少，都不足以覆盖它们的运营成本。”
The Association of Art Museum Directors reported in 2018 that ticket sales accounted on average for just 7% of total revenue at American art museums.
艺术博物馆馆长协会在2018年报告称，美国艺术博物馆的门票收入平均仅占总收入的7%。
Memberships contributed another 7%.
会员费也贡献了7%。
The remainder of budgets usually come from endowments, charitable donations, grants and retail operations.
收入的其余部分通常来自捐赠、慈善捐款、政府拨款和零售业务。
European museums are less reliant on admissions fees, because they are often heavily subsidised by governments.
欧洲博物馆对门票费的依赖程度较低，因为它们通常得到政府的巨额补贴。
This can make it awkward to ask taxpayers to buy a pricey ticket and in effect pay twice.
这样一来，要求纳税人购买昂贵的门票，并实际上付两次门票钱的做法就会变得很不对劲。
Many institutions choose to offer reductions for the young, pensioners and locals.
许多博物馆选择为年轻人、老人和当地人提供折扣。
All national institutions in Britain offer free admission, as do most state-run museums in China.
英国所有的国家博物馆都可以免费参观，中国的大多数公立博物馆也是如此。
(Exceptions are made for special exhibitions.)
(特殊展览除外。)
In America some 30% are free, including big public museums like those of the Smithsonian Institution and private ones such as the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.
在美国，大约30%的博物馆是免费的，包括像史密森尼学会这样的大型公共博物馆和像洛杉矶盖蒂中心这样的私人博物馆。
Some observers have repeated Mr Lowry’s call for museums, especially the most well-endowed, to stop charging for admission entirely.
一些观察家重申了劳里的呼吁，即博物馆，特别是捐赠资金最丰厚的博物馆，完全停止门票收费。
Ballooning prices go against museums’ goal of sharing art with a more diverse public.
飞涨的价格与博物馆要与更多样化的公众分享艺术的目标背道而驰。
They could also accelerate the already steep decline in the share of Americans attending museums and galleries: between 2017 and 2022 it shrunk by 26%.
还可能让本已急剧下降的参观博物馆和画廊的美国人比例继续加速下降：2017至2022年间，这一比例减少了26%。
Declining public interest, particularly among young people, is a challenge for institutions that rely heavily on public support.
对于严重依赖公众支持的博物馆来说，公众兴趣的下降，尤其是年轻人的兴趣下降，是一个挑战。
Those who choose not to visit a museum today may be the people who vote against government subsidies or refuse to write personal cheques as patrons in a few years.
现在选择不去参观博物馆的人，可能就是几年后投票反对政府补贴博物馆的人，或者拒绝作为赞助人提供个人捐款的人。
Those who spend time inside museums’ galleries are more likely to grasp their richness and want to invest their own riches in them.
那些花时间去参观博物馆画廊的人更有可能领会博物馆的文化财富，并希望将自己的财富投入博物馆。
Yet significantly reducing costs may not actually do much to attract new audiences either.
然而，大幅降低成本实际上可能也不会对吸引新游客起到多大作用。
In both America and Europe, people say that price is just one of several factors when it comes to deciding what to do with their leisure time.
在美国和欧洲，人们说在决定如何打发闲暇时间时，价格只是众多因素的其中之一。
If tickets were free, “people who typically come anyway might come more often.
印第安纳大学研究艺术定价的经济学家迈克尔·拉什顿说，如果门票是免费的，“经常来博物馆的人可能会来得更勤。
Otherwise, you’re not really changing your demographic,” says Michael Rushton, an economist at Indiana University who studies pricing in the arts.
除此之外，你并没有真正改变博物馆的受众群”。
He compares museums to elite American universities: Harvard and Stanford could afford to make tuition free for all, but many wealthy students who do not need the gift would be among the biggest beneficiaries.
他将博物馆比作美国的名牌大学：哈佛大学和斯坦福大学有能力向所有人免收学费，但许多不需要这种优惠的富裕学生也会成为最大的受益者。
As museums throughout the West debate what price is right, most are unlikely to conclude the answer is zero, “moral duty” or not.
当西方各国的博物馆都在争论什么价格是合理的时候，无论讲不讲“道德责任”，大多数博物馆都不太可能得出结论说，最合理的门票价格是零。
