Metropolitan Museum of Art to Stop Using Metal Admission Buttons

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing away with the tiny metal buttons that serve as its admission ticket.

 

Starting Monday, the button will be replaced with a paper ticket with detachable sticker. Museum officials say it has become too expensive to produce the buttons, which were introduced in 1971. 

 

Some sentimental museum-goers aren't ready to part with the metal buttons just yet. 

 

"It's a cute way to remember the Met," said Angelica Dovi. "To put on the pin, it's a little more personal, I feel, than paper."

 

Remy Esquenet proudly wore his button as a sign "that I contributed to the arts, that I actually paid the money and they gave me a little pin for it." 

 

The buttons came in 16 different colors and featured the letter "M." The color was changed daily. A few museum visitors recognized the costs of having to produce them.

 

"These things must cost a lot of money to make, to keep changing colors and everything," said Judy Goldhand. 

 

A spokeperson for the Met said the paper stickers are one-third the cost of the iconic multi-colored pins and more useful for printing promotions.

 

Over the years, most people have discarded the buttons; a few have dropped them into the recycling bin at the museum doors, and others have gotten creative -- like when hundreds of buttons were used to fashion a chain mail-like dress, donated by a late curator of the museum's Fashion Institute.