Liberace Museum Closing

After more than 30 years entertaining visitors to Las Vegas, the Liberace Museum will close its doors forever on October 17.

According to Las Vegas Weekly, the museum, which exhibited the jewelry, pianos, garish costumes, and other artifacts owned by the great pianist, has fallen victim to the economy.

At its peak the museum rivaled the Hoover Dam as one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions, bringing in more than 400,000 visitors per year. Liberace Foundation board of directors chair Jeffrey Koep informed the staff last week that all full- and part-time positions will be eliminated October 17.

“This is a pretty straightforward business decision that’s basically been a long time coming,” Koep said. “The biggest thing to the board is the human beings affected, that we are going to have to get rid of our employees. ... But also, we recognize what Liberace meant to the history of Las Vegas, and that makes this very difficult and sad for us.”

Read the full story here.