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Artists of Toledo

About the Petition to Enforce Libbey’s Will

Data Portraits of the Toledo Museum of Art

The financial and public-facing transformation of the museum
beyond the physical studs

Data portraits tracking changes leading up to the museum’s current closure and reconfiguration, 2014–2026. These trends raise questions about alignment with the public mission established by Edward Drummond Libbey.

The museum’s financial growth is decoupled from public engagement and exhibition output – a disconnect between visitors and revenue.

Excessive Spending, Declining Visitors: Exhibition Activity, Attendance, and Financial Trends at the Toledo Museum of Art 2014–2026

 

Failure to bring in visitors after the pandemic compared to the AAM national average trend and the attendance recovery of the Cleveland Museum of Art:

Sale of world-class famous paintings in spite of public outcry resulting in 25% loss of general membership. Funding by thousands of members is replaced by a handful of major donors:

The draw rate from the Libbey funds moved from normal to dangerous:

In 2014, the combined Libbey trusts distributed $2.5 million, or 5.3 percent of assets—well within standard endowment practice. By 2024, that draw had risen to $3.6 million, nearly 8 percent of a smaller fund. The museum is now taking more than $1 million more each year from a smaller Libbey fund than it did a decade ago—a clear shift from preservation toward accelerated spending.

The museum expanded its operating scale at the same time the Libbey funds declined in real terms. Is the goal to get rid of the Libbey funds so they don’t have to play by the rules?

click on the link to read/download pdf of Item XXV of the will —

ITEM XXV of the LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
of EDWARD DRUMMOND LIBBEY
When a museum loses members but replaces them with a handful of large funders, who is it really accountable to?

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