The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has kept its doors closed on Mondays for more than 40 years, is considering a change in the policy because of rising Met attendance and New York tourism, writes The New York Times.

“We turn away thousands of people every Monday. We’re not really serving our audience,” said the museum’s director, Thomas P. Campbell, who has proposed opening the institution on Mondays starting in July 2013. The idea is being taken up by staff and board members in meetings this week and a decision will be made in the coming months, he said.

The museum shut its doors on Mondays in 1971 to save money, but Mr. Campbell said rising tourism could now tip the economic scales in favor of seven-day-a-week operations. Met attendance reached a record 6.3-million in the 2011-12 fiscal year, and New York’s marketing and tourism agency said tourism in the city has jumped 16.2 percent since 2006.

The Met has experimented in recent years with Monday openings on holidays and for blockbuster shows. Most U.S. national museums and major London institutions operate daily, and Mr. Campbell said the topic has been much discussed at recent conferences of museum leaders.