New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art completed job cuts announced in March and reduced staff by 14 percent, or 357 positions, according to a press release.

The Met had said it would cut about 10 percent of its staff. Spokesman Harold Holzer said in an interview that about 40 percent of those offered early retirement packages accepted them, higher than it expected, and the museum was able to close down 15 of its 16 satellite shops, also more than expected.

“We weren’t certain we could close all those shops because of rental agreements,” Holzer said.

The museum said it fired 53 people at the shops around the country and another 74 at its merchandising operation. It has just one shop remaining in addition to its Fifth Avenue museum, at Rockefeller Center.

A total of 95 employees ages 55 or over with at least 15 years at the museum took a buyout, according to the press release. In the past two weeks, it dismissed 74 union and non- union employees, the museum said. Other positions were eliminated through attrition.

The Met will have 2,200 full and part-time employees in fiscal year 2010, the release said.

Holzer said the museum is done cutting jobs under the March plan, but couldn’t rule out additional reductions. He pointed out few anticipated the recent economic contraction and stock market plunge.

“If anyone predicted the Dow would be 8,500 and not 14,000, you would say they were smoking something,” he said.