The Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art in California has shut its doors, the 26th US museum to do so in the last year.

According to the Los Angeles Times, museum officials are saying the closure was due to the economic crisis - and the subsequent lack of donations the museum received - and its three-year refurbishment project, which not only cost a huge amount of money, but also meant that the museum could not operate at full capacity.

The 25-year-old museum reopened in November 2008 after the US$28m revamp, which began in 2005, was completed.

According to an Arts Journal blog, the 26 museums to have closed this past year are: The Bead Museum, Arizona; the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Florida; the Las Vegas Museum of Art; 12 historic sites shut by the state of Illinois (though the state hopes to reopen these); the National Sports Museum, New York; the Sports Museum of Los Angeles; three museums closed by the University of Arizona; the Minnesota Museum of American Art; three history museums in Oregon City; two historic sites in Delaware and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

The closures are blamed on expansions carried out during the boom years, which left many museums unable to pay their debts.