New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art set the goal of its fundraising drive at $300 million in 1994. Since then, that goal has been slowly increased and today it is more than doubled -- to $650 million, the New York Times reports.

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Met, told the newspaper that $450 million has been raised so far, which includes a recent $50 million gift.

The first fund drive of $300 million was to pay for the renovation of the Met's Greek and Roman galleries and to endow $100 million in cultural, educational and conservation programs, the Times reports.

That goal was increased to $400 million in 1997 to "expand the Greek and Roman galleries project" and increase the Met's endowment.

In its latest effort, museum officials will use the money to help pay for its expansion to previously unused areas of its building. Museum officials have been searching for any unused space or storage area that could be used to expand a gallery or form a new one. An agreement with the city in the 1970s says the museum cannot extend itself into Central Park, the New York Times reports.

The latest fundraising campaign has $50 million earmarked for acquisitions, which will replace the Met's loss of $10 million from Readers' Digest Association Stock dividends. Twenty-five percent of those dividends were to be used for acquisitions.

Full text of the article is currently found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/ny-met-money.html