Ticket Rush

How much is too much for a peek at Picasso?

By Anna Malpas
Published: November 12, 2004

While locals might not think twice about being asked their nationality at museum ticket booths, foreigners are often surprised to find that a non-Russian passport means paying more. Recently, though, two of Moscow's most visited museums, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, increased their prices for Russians too, prompting an article of protest in Noviye Izvestia headlined "An Expensive Pleasure."

The Tretyakov Gallery raised its prices to coincide with the opening of an exhibition of Russian academic painting on Oct. 20. Instead of 50 rubles ($1.75), people from Russia and the CIS now must pay 80 rubles ($2.80) to see "Captives of Beauty" and all the other exhibits at the Tretyakov's modern-art wing on Krymsky Val. That's a sizeable chunk of the average Russian paycheck, which officially amounts to about $200 per month.

In a further blow to art lovers, prices have gone up across the board at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the home of works by Pablo Picasso, Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Vincent van Gogh. Since Sept. 1 -- the end of the school holidays -- Russians have had to pay 150 rubles ($5.20) instead of the former 100 rubles ($3.50), while foreign visitors fork out 300 rubles ($10.46) instead of the 240 rubles ($8.37) they paid before.

"In one year alone, ticket prices have gone up by a third, much faster than inflation," Sergei Solovyov wrote in Noviye Izvestia, though he admitted that the prices are still relatively low in comparison with other forms of entertainment. "Muscovites are already prepared to pay up to 300 rubles ($10.50) for a trip to the cinema or theater, but would consider giving the same money for one trip to the Tretyakov or the Pushkin [art museums] an impermissible luxury."

For Valentina Golovina, the deputy director for economic questions at the Pushkin Museum, the price hike was long overdue. "For several years, we didn't raise them at all," she said in a recent interview. "Even the visitors pointed this out to us many times.

"You know that in Moscow, excuse me for saying this, even going to a public toilet costs 10 or 15 rubles. It doesn't look right when we have such low ticket prices," Golovina commented. The museum's directorship compared its prices to those at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and elsewhere, she said, and set new tariffs it considers fair. "People who love us and want to see us still come, regardless of the ticket prices."

Indeed, the Tretyakov Gallery deliberately pegged its price hike to an exhibition expected to draw crowds, said Eleonora Tyan, the deputy head of its public relations department. A major event at the New Tretyakov Gallery, "Captives of Beauty" brings together over 500 works of 19th-century art from museums across Russia. "I think [the price rise] happened because the exhibit was expected to attract a lot of visitors," she said.

While tickets to the New Tretyakov Gallery allow visitors to go to all the exhibits, their cost varies according to which temporary shows are on, Tyan said. Ticket prices may change again when the "Captives of Beauty" exhibit ends. However, foreigners are currently getting a good deal, she said, since the price of their tickets "hasn't gone up for a very long time." As opposed to the 80 rubles that Russians now pay, citizens of non-CIS countries pay 225 rubles ($7.85) to enter.

According to official ticketing policy, Russians and CIS residents actually receive what is termed a discount, while foreigners pay the real cost of entry. Whereas foreigner prices used to be specified alongside local prices at ticket booths, these days the heightened price makes no mention of foreigners, and the discount price is listed below.

"In order to get a discount, they should really show ID," Tyan said of Russian visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery, admitting, "I'm not sure that they always show documents."

Igor Tabakov / MT

Ticket booths often charge extra for foreigners, arguing that since they earn more than Russians, they should pay more to get in.

Different prices for foreigners date back to Soviet times, when visitors on Intourist package trips exchanged hard currency for rubles at elevated rates. Staff members at museums across Moscow continue to argue that foreigners should pay more because they earn more, despite the fact that Russia's Constitution guarantees equal rights to citizens of all countries. Even museums that rely on Russian visitors rather than tourists, such as the state-owned galleries of Kremlin favorites Alexander Shilov and Ilya Glazunov, still engage in dual pricing.

Decisions on ticket pricing are made not by the Culture and Press Ministry, which funds the museums, but by the venues' individual directors. Therefore, tariffs at Moscow museums range from high to low, as do differences between full and discounted prices.

At the Pushkin Museum, Russians pay half of the full price of 300 rubles. At the State Historical Museum, Russians pay 60 rubles, or two-fifths of the 150 rubles that foreigners pay. Foreigners pay 350 rubles for a visit to the Kremlin Armory, while Russians pay 100 rubles, or less than a third of the price.

These higher costs make trips to museums a significant part of tourist spending in Moscow. According to statistics published by the city's tourism committee in July, the average visitor spends $900 in Moscow, of which 21 percent goes to museums and excursions.

Yet museums should aim to raise revenue through sponsorship and hosting corporate events, rather than by relying on high entrance fees, believes Helene Lloyd, the director of TMI Consultancy, a marketing and public relations company specializing in the travel sector. "Museums shouldn't be making money from admissions. They should be using their premises for other purposes to make money, which they can do so much more easily."

Currently, many museums with dual pricing provide little or no information in foreign languages, leaving visitors to feel ripped off. "If you want to charge extra, you must give an additional service for that," Lloyd said. "You must say, 'Okay, we're charging you extra to come into the Hermitage or the Tretyakov Gallery, but you have a free English-speaking guide to accompany you around, or an electronic device that will give you a tour in English.'"

There are exceptions to the "foreigners pay full price" rule. The Moscow House of Photography, a gallery founded in 1996 and funded by the city government, rather than the federal budget, charges a single price for all visitors, regardless of their nationality.

"I understand that tickets for foreigners cost more than usual tickets, and that seems wrong to us," said Moscow House of Photography spokeswoman Irina Tkachyova. "I don't think that any other country has a special ticket price for foreign citizens." Tickets to the gallery range from 70 to 120 rubles, depending on which exhibit is showing, she said.

Nevertheless, Golovina defended the price differential for foreigners at the Pushkin Museum. At some point it will be abolished, she believes, but not until Russia and CIS residents can afford to pay the 300 rubles that foreigners pay. "As soon as our average monthly wage is at the European level, we will definitely leave aside these discounts, and set the same price for the Russian visitor," she promised.

"As you know, in Europe, even the smallest museum costs no less than 8 euros," she said, adding that entry to a "more serious museum" costs from 12 to 15 euros. "It seemed to us that our status and our running costs mean that we deserve a higher price, and for foreigners who are used to paying 8 euros or so for museum entry, our price ... wouldn't seem expensive."

However, there is no Europe-wide norm for ticket prices at state-owned museums and galleries. It costs 8.50 euros to visit the Louvre in Paris, and 8 euros for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. But entrance to Madrid's Prado costs just over 3 euros. London's National Gallery charges 13 euros to enter its current Raphael exhibition, but visitors can see the museum's permanent collection free of charge.

Even so, Tyan echoed Golovina's reasoning to explain the Tretyakov Gallery's pricing policy. "Our position is that we know the prices at European museums, and ours are entirely acceptable," she said. Prices for Russians should remain low, she added, since the gallery aims to be "democratic."

"Schoolchildren go to the Hermitage absolutely for free. We can't afford that yet, unfortunately, but we would like to do that very much," she said. "As we are an organization funded by the budget, of course we are forced to make a living. We can't afford [free entry for all], but we really do think that if we can maintain our low prices for visitors, we should."

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