MFA hikes ticket prices, cuts special exhibit fee

May make MFA visits the most expensive museum tickets in U.S.

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts – already one of the most expensive art museums to visit in the United States – is raising its general admission adult ticket price from $17 to $20 as it opens its new special exhibition “The Secrets of Tomb 10A” on Oct. 18.

However, with this 18 percent price hike visitors will now gain admission into everything in the museum, instead of the $25 adult admission previously charged for entry into special exhibitions, like this Egyptian antiquities show, or this summer's “Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese” Renaissance painting exhibit.

MFA special exhibition tickets appear to have been the most expensive art museum admission in the nation. But now its general admission tickets may be – along with New York’s Museum of Modern Art (whose price includes special exhibitions) – the most expensive general admission in the land.

General admission at some U.S. museums:
New York’s Museum of Modern Art: $20.
Art Institute of Chicago: $18.
Philadelphia Museum of Art: $16.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: $12 (special exhibits: $25).
L.A. MOCA: $10 ($2 fee for online purchases)
Dallas Museum of Art: $10.