"The folk art museum took on $32 million of debt to construct the 53rd Street building. But attendance never met expectations, and after sustaining investment losses in the financial crisis, the museum defaulted on its debt."

The NYT's Kate Taylor reports that MoMA is buying the American Folk Art Museum building on West 53rd Street.  "The folk art museum will continue to operate in its much smaller Lincoln Square branch."  Jerry Saltz blames the architecture.  Justin Davidson disagrees (" no architectural finesse can compensate for inadequate management, overreach, poor timing, or bad luck").

In other museum space-related news, the NYT's Carol Vogel reports today that the Met will take over the Whitney's building when the latter opens its new space in 2015, "according to the terms of a real estate agreement that the museum boards are pursuing."

And in other museum failure-related news, the Jersey City Museum is facing “imminent” foreclosure by its bank.