BALTIMORE—Citing financial difficulties, the Walters Art Museum has announced a restructuring plan that will eliminate seven of 150 staff positions and impose a salary and hiring freeze and enforced leaves of absence without pay for some upper-level employees, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The museum has also canceled an exhibition of the 19th-century French painter Jean-Leon Gerome, slated for spring 2010, that was planned in collaboration with the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Getty in Los Angeles. The exhibition would have resulted in a $300,000 net loss to the Walters, museum director Gary Vikan says. "In normal times, we could have lived with that," he said.

"Canceling that exhibit, and losing the chance to work with the d'Orsay and the Getty, was really painful."

All together, the museum's annual budget will be reduced from about $14.5 million to $12.5 million. The cuts are a response to a 27 percent drop in the museum's endowment and expected reductions in state and local government grants. In terms of state funding, "there's a cut of 36 percent on the table right now," Vikan said. "That would be a loss of $420,000 for us next year. That's brutal."

The museum is committed to maintaining its free-admission policy, Vikan says, and does not expect to make any further cuts to staff, though it may consider trimming operating hours.