A Close Look at the Guggenheim's Finances

Between the Smithsonian fighting off forcing patrons to pay for tickets to its museums and San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum facing bankruptcy (a problem it’s still working through), we’ve been talking a lot lately about how times are still tough for museums. Now the NY Times has put together this brief, interesting look at the Guggenheim Foundation‘s tax filings, showing just how awful 2008 was for them (“the museum’s net assets declined by 25 percent”), how things picked up a bit in 2009, but with cuts and layoffs, still weren’t great, and how the cultural organization is hoping for a better 2010.