In the Arts: Gifts to For-Profit Sex Museum Earn Tax Breaks

Donors to a for-profit New York museum devoted to erotic art and artifacts are eligible for a tax deduction because of the facility’s association with a nonprofit organization, according to The New York Times.

The nonprofit Muse Foundation of New York takes tax-deductible gifts for Manhattan’s Museum of Sex, such as a steel bondage machine donated a few years ago by a dominatrix. Tax lawyers interviewed by the Times said the arrangement of a charity collecting items for a commercial museum is unusual.

In other arts news, ticket sales for the Metropolitan Opera’s series of high-definition telecasts in theaters reached a record 2.2 million people this season, The Associated Press says.

The Met broadcast nine productions in venues in North America, Latin America, and Europe in 2009-10. Sales were up by 400,000 from the previous season.

And The Wall Street Journal reports on a New York librarian who marked her retirement by donating $30,000 to World Music Institute, for which she has long volunteered.

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