Lincoln Centre Plaza, home to the Metropolitan Opera, is in financial dire straits, and the scale of its response now risks reshaping the Centre itself. Among the measures under consideration is the sale of two monumental Marc Chagall murals that have watched over the Grand Tier since 1966. If they go, they will not be dismantled or shipped off to a private collection. Instead, the works would remain in situ, effectively leased back to the institution for which they were made.
According to reports in the New York Times, Sotheby’s has valued ‘Sources of Music’ and ‘The Triumphs of Music’ at a combined $55 million. Each mural measures roughly 30 by 36 feet and occupies the most prominent place within the opera house. They function as part of the building’s identity. Reports say the sale would not be a deaccession but more of a mortgage. Designed and constructed between 1955 and 1972, many iconic mid-century designers helped shape Lincoln Center including Philip Johnson, Wallace Harrison, Eero Saarinen, Gordon Bunshaft, and Landscape Architect Dan Kiley, among others. Lincoln Centre’s clean lines and minimal ornamentation are evident across the campus buildings, public spaces, and landscapes.
The circumstances behind the proposal are frightening. With an annual operating budget of around $330 million, the Met has already drawn approximately $120 million from its endowment—more than a third of its total reserves. Performances have been cut back, costs trimmed, and new revenue streams aggressively pursued. Chief among these is a controversial agreement with Saudi Arabia, under which the company is expected to perform there for three weeks each winter. The deal is projected to bring in more than $100 million.
That arrangement has drawn criticism, not least because of Saudi Arabia’s well-documented human rights record, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Met general manager Peter Gelb has acknowledged the sensitivities to the NY Times, while also conceding that even this agreement is not immune to external pressures. Saudi budgets, he has said, are themselves being “recalibrated”.
Chagall Murals Lincoln Centre Courtesy Wiki Media Author Adjoajo
Chagall’s relationship with the murals runs deep. In the same year they were unveiled, he designed sets and costumes for a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. His Mozart’s colours and floating figures proved an almost unnervingly perfect match for the opera’s fantastical logic. Critic Alan Rich described the designs as “richly recognisable, ‘vintage Chagall.’ However, he joked that by the end of the evening, audiences seemed convinced Chagall had also written the music, sung the roles and conducted the orchestra.
The murals have been discussed in past financial meetings. In 2009, the Times reported that the Met had used them as collateral for a $35 million loan from JPMorgan Chase. Earlier still, the opera sold Chagall’s Magic Flute backdrops. What feels different now is the sense that nothing—however symbolically charged—is entirely off the table. Chagall’s auction records have crossed the $10 million threshold since 1990, and institutional interest remains strong. A major retrospective at Vienna’s Albertina Museum closed in May 2025, marking 40 years since the artist’s death.
The murals were conceived for a site-specific civic space, commissioned to embody the Met’s self-image at a moment when the Met’s self-image was high. Selling them while keeping them physically in place introduces an uneasy area that has never been explored before. The Met would retain the appearance of stability while quietly surrendering ownership of some of its most recognisable symbols.
The institution is exploring other options. Gelb has indicated that naming rights to the opera house itself are under consideration, following the lead of neighbouring venues such as David Geffen Hall and the David H. Koch Theatre. The Met may also rent out its auditorium to external performers during periods when it would otherwise sit dark.
“We are being as entrepreneurial as possible,” Gelb has said. It captures the”mood but not the risk. Entrepreneurship, in this context, carries the risk of hollowing out what makes the Met more than a rental space with good acoustics.
Since 2006, the opera house has also hosted a dedicated gallery space, mounting exhibitions by artists including Cecily Brown, George Condo, Julie Mehretu, Anselm Kiefer and Dana Schutz. A show by Shara Hughes is currently on view. These gestures have helped position the Met as a broader cultural player rather than merely a temple to opera.
The possible sale of the Chagall murals tests that identity. It is one thing to diversify revenue streams; it is another to monetise the very artworks that define the building’s character. If the Metbuilding does so carefully and discreetly. But the message will be hard to ignore: even the grandest cultural institutions are no longer immune to the logic of asset liquidation.
Photos Via Wiki Media Commons