The Met Donates Lab Equipment To NYC Hospitals

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Metropolitan Museum of Art donated thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment to New York City hospitals to aid efforts to treat coronavirus patients, museum officials announced this week.

Staff from the museum departments took inventory at the museum's lab and work spaces to unearth about 23,000 gloves, 100 chemical-resistant suits and aprons, 500 surgical booties, more than 350 N95 face masks and surgical masks and 50 pairs of goggles and face shields, museum officials said. The supplies were then distributed to hospitals throughout New York City, museum officials said.

The museum is also taking steps to put its textile specialists to work by making masks for medical professionals. Fabrics and other materials in The Met's inventory were packaged and sent to 15 of the museum's textile specialists to sew masks.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art closed its three museums in early March as a measure to curb the spread of coronavirus in New York City. The Met's main location on Fifth Avenue, its Met Breuer location on Madison Avenue and its Met Cloisters location in Washington Heights underwent "thorough" cleanings when the museums shut down, officials said.

A letter sent to museum department heads following the closure revealed that the museum stands to lose $100 million and could be closed through at least the month of June, the New York Times first reported. When the Met reopens, many of the museum's programs will be cut in anticipation of a possible year-long decline in tourism caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, according to the report.