The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been charging admission for years and it turns out they weren’t supposed to. Now someone has brought a class action suit to try to get the money back — for people who were wrongly charged at the door and for Met members who joined to save the admission fee that they shouldn’t have had to pay in the first place.

A personal note: The Bitemaster and Prof. Hound of Hell went to the Met a couple months ago. When we tried to go in without paying, we were turned back by an usher who directed us to the admission booth. There we were told we could go in free, but only after 5:00 pm (the galleries are cleared at 5:15 pm on Tuesdays through Thursdays).

And the Met website still says:

The Museum participates in several programs that include free admission for students. All New York City public school students, along with students from Bard Graduate Center, Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, may visit the Museum for free. Please check with your school administrator to see if your student ID allows free admission to the Museum.

If admission really is free, as Met spokesman Harold Holzer claims in the Post article, why would students need a student ID or special arrangements to get in free?

Met in fee-for-alll – NYPOST.com.