The following is a News 12 article:
The newly opened National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum in lower Manhattan is already stirring controversy over the decision to include a gift shop.
The gift shop has T-shirts, books and a number of other 9/11 related items for sale. All proceeds go toward maintaining and running the museum, which has a $63 million operating budget.
Some argue that the shop goes against the museum’s purpose of honoring victims and is making a profit from tragedy.
The memorial museum had also tried unsuccessfully to obtain federal funds to help defray costs, including a $24 admission fee. It is free, however, to rescue workers and relatives of those killed in the attacks.
The museum was dedicated last Thursday in a ceremony attended by survivors, rescuers, victims’ families and President Barack Obama. It’s currently only open to the 9/11 community, but will open to the general public on Wednesday.
(Source: News 12)
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2 Responses
Did I read that right? 63 million annual operating cost? That means in the amount of time it took to build this place since September 11th it would have cost close to a billion dollars to commemorate the lives of those that were lost!?!?!? If all museums cost this much to run the museum of natural history would be history.
I would like to see a line by line budget on why it should cost so much to operate. I am sure there is a lot of fat in there