New York’s Metropolitan Opera is facing a serious financial crunch, and may sell two beloved Marc Chagall murals to help fill the gap—but if it does, it will leave them in place. Sotheby’s valued the artworks at a total of $55 million, reports the New York Times. Unveiled in 1966, The Sources of Music and The Triumphs of Music measure some 30 by 36 feet and hang in the building’s Grand Tier.
The Met, which has an annual budget of $330 million, has drawn $120 million from its endowment (more than a third of the balance), reduced its performance schedule, and entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will see the company perform there for three weeks each winter, notes the Times, which reports that the deal is expected to bring the Met more than $100 million. The deal has come in for some scrutiny since Saudi Arabia has a record of serious human rights abuses, including the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And while he says he has been assured the deal will go through, Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, tells the paper that “I understand the Saudis have had to recalibrate their budgets because of their own economic concerns.”
Chagall also contributed set and costume designs in 1966 for a staging of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, for which Chagall’s dreamlike works were thought to be a good match. “Everything is rich recognizable, vintage Chagall, the fanciful figures, the slashing, vibrant colors,” wrote Alan Rich in the World Journal-Tribune, as the opera’s website points out. The writer only seemed concerned that the artist was getting too much attention: “By the end of last evening,” he wrote, “many members of the Metropolitan Opera House’s audience were convinced that Marc Chagall had not only designed the new production but had also composed the music, written the libretto, sung the major roles and conducted.”
The paintings have come under discussion in previous reports on financial woes at the Met. In 2009, the Times reported that the Met said it had put up the murals as part of the collateral for an existing $35 million loan from JPMorgan Chase. It had previously sold Chagall’s Magic Flute backdrops for $1 million, the paper said.
Marc Chagall, Les Sources de la Musique (The Sources of Music), 1966.
The artist’s auction record is $28.5 million, set by his 1928 painting Les Amoureux at Sotheby’s New York in 2017, far above its $18 million high estimate. A dozen of his works have exceeded the $10 million mark since 1990. He was the subject of a major retrospective at Vienna’s Albertina Museum that closed in February 2025 and was timed to the 40th anniversary of his death.
Marc Chagall, Le Triomphe de la Musique (The Triumph of Music), 1966.
Marc Chagall
An art gallery at the Met Opera, inaugurated in 2006, has hosted exhibitions of contemporary artists including Cecily Brown, Chuck Close, George Condo, Rashid Johnson, Anselm Kiefer, Julie Mehretu, Nicholas Party, Elizabeth Peyton, and Dana Schutz. Currently on view is a show by Shara Hughes.
Gelb says the Met is also considering selling naming rights to its theater. Two neighboring buildings are named for supporters: David Geffen Hall is home to the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet resides in the David H. Koch Theater. It may also lease its theater to other performers at times when it would normally be silent.
“We are being as entrepreneurial as possible,” Gelb told the Times.
