With over 180,000 square meters of floor space , the Metropolitan Museum of Art ranks as one of the most important museums in the world . The museum is located on the edge of Central Park.
Affectionately nicknamed “the Met,” this museum attracts over 5 million visitors each year. The Cloisters, a museum dedicated to medieval and monastic art, is an annex to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; located on the north side of Manhattan Island.
History of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The idea of establishing an art museum was initiated in 1870 when artists and businessmen from New York raised the opportunity. The main collection would soon be established with a total of 174 works from private European collections.
In 1872 , the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its doors at the Dodsworth Academy of Dancing, 681 Fifth Avenue. Many of the works on display came from the personal collection of John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive who was appointed president of the museum.
Under his stewardship, the museum quickly acquired a large collection of magnificent objects and the small museum quickly filled up. The Met then moved to the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street, but it was not long before it finally settled on newly acquired land, where a purple brick mausoleum was built.
The Met is still there today, and this unique building is part of a new, cutting-edge development. There have been quite a few extensions, such as the Beaux-Arts facade designed by Richard Morris Hunt, while the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White was responsible for the south (1911) and north (1913) wings.
In 1971, a completely new architectural design was determined. The construction would last 20 years and the work was assigned to the architectural firm of Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates.
Completely different wings of the MET
This new distribution allows you to create the Robert Lehman house that showcases works by European masters of impressionism and post-impressionism.
The Temple of Isis is a masterpiece built during the Roman period, now on display in the Sacker family home .
The American section, opened in 1980, has 24 rooms offering works and equipment for the daily lives of Americans.
In Michael C. Rockefeller’s wing, we are going to admire the items from Africad’Oceania et of the Americas. The Lilac Acheson Wallace Wing is dedicated to trendy works and eventually the Henry R. Kravis Wing is devoted to European sculpture and ornamental arts from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century.
From the Nineties, new collections appeared such because the Korean Arts gallery, exhibitions of Greek and Roman antiquities and works from the Center East. In 1999, we found the New Greek Gallery and in 2000, it was the flip of the Cypriot galleries.
Entrance payment : $20 (with entry to The Cloisters)
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