Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA

The Metropolitan Museum of Art occupies its main building on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, beside Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Usually called The Met, the museum holds more than 1.5 million objects representing over 5,000 years of human history. Its collections range from ancient Egyptian monuments and Greek sculpture to European paintings, Asian art, American interiors, armor, photography, musical instruments, fashion, and modern and contemporary works.

What the Collection Covers

The Met is organized across numerous curatorial areas rather than around a single period or country. Visitors can move between ancient Mediterranean cultures, Egypt, the ancient Near East, Asia, the Islamic world, medieval Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, European painting and sculpture, American art, arms and armor, drawings and prints, photographs, musical instruments, fashion, and modern and contemporary art within the same institution.

The scale of the collection means that only part of the museum’s holdings can be displayed at one time. Gallery rotations, loans, conservation work, and temporary exhibitions can change what is on view. The museum also maintains an extensive online collection database with records for individual objects.

The Temple of Dendur and Egyptian Galleries

One of the most recognizable installations at The Met Fifth Avenue is the Temple of Dendur. The temple was completed by about 10 BCE during the Roman period in Egypt. It originally stood in Nubia, south of modern Aswan.

The monument was dismantled during the international effort to save Nubian monuments threatened by the rising waters created by the Aswan High Dam. Egypt later presented the temple to the United States in recognition of American participation in that campaign. It is now installed inside the museum in a large gallery designed to accommodate the ancient structure.

The surrounding Egyptian Art galleries extend far beyond the temple. The collection includes sculpture, reliefs, coffins, jewelry, funerary objects, architectural material, and objects from different periods of ancient Egyptian history. Several galleries also contain facsimiles made by artists working with the museum’s early archaeological expeditions in Egypt.

European Paintings

The Met’s European paintings holdings include more than 2,500 works dating from the thirteenth through the early twentieth century. The galleries contain works associated with artists such as Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside earlier Italian and Northern European painting.

Dutch seventeenth-century painting is especially well represented. The museum also holds five paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer, an unusually large group considering the small number of paintings by the artist known to survive.

The American Wing

The American Wing brings together painting, sculpture, decorative arts, architectural elements, furniture, glass, ceramics, silver, textiles, and historical interiors. A separate wing dedicated to American art opened in 1924, and its spaces have since been enlarged and reworked.

Twenty period rooms are used to present changing forms of American domestic architecture and furnishings. The Charles Engelhard Court provides a much larger setting for architectural elements, monumental sculpture, stained glass, and decorative objects. Paintings and sculpture are displayed throughout adjoining galleries.

From the Museum’s Founding to Fifth Avenue

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated on April 13, 1870. The institution initially had neither a permanent museum building nor an established collection. Its first public exhibition opened in 1872 at the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue.

The museum later operated from the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street before moving to its present Central Park location. The Fifth Avenue museum opened there on March 30, 1880. The original building was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, but later additions gradually surrounded and expanded it. The structure visible today reflects many phases of construction rather than a single building campaign.

The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters

The Metropolitan Museum of Art operates two museum locations in New York City. The Met Fifth Avenue is the main museum at 1000 Fifth Avenue. The Met Cloisters, at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, concentrates on medieval art and architecture.

A regular Met admission ticket includes exhibitions and same-day admission to both locations for the date printed on the ticket. The two museums are several miles apart, so visitors intending to see both should allow for travel time between the Upper East Side and Fort Tryon Park.

Admission and Opening Hours

Current general admission at The Met is $30 for adults, $22 for visitors age 65 and over, and $17 for students. Children age 12 and under receive free admission. Members also receive free admission according to the museum’s membership rules.

New York State residents may use the museum’s pay-what-you-wish admission system. Students from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are also eligible. The museum requires eligible visitors to pay something, and proof of residency or student status may be required. Rules for purchasing these tickets online and in person differ, particularly for students from New Jersey and Connecticut.

The Met Fifth Avenue is normally open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, with extended hours until 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is closed on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1, and the first Monday in May.

Visitor Rules and Photography

All visitors pass through a security check before entering the museum. Small backpacks are permitted, but they must be worn on the front or carried by hand. Large bags and luggage are not allowed. Visitors may bring water in a secure bottle, while other food and beverages are restricted from the galleries.

Non-flash photography and personal video recording are permitted in most galleries unless a gallery or individual work is marked otherwise. Selfie sticks, tripods, monopods, drones, and professional video equipment are not permitted without prior authorization. Visitors who want to sketch in the galleries may use pencils; paints, markers, charcoal, and similar materials are restricted.

Accessibility at The Met Fifth Avenue

Step-free entrances are available at Fifth Avenue and 81st Street and through the museum parking garage at Fifth Avenue and 80th Street. Manual and electric wheelchairs, mobility scooters, walkers, canes, and other approved mobility aids may be used in public areas.

A limited number of manual wheelchairs are available from the coat check at the 81st Street entrance on a first-come, first-served basis. The museum also provides accessibility services for visitors who are blind or partially sighted and offers assistive listening facilities in designated areas.

Temporary gallery closures, exhibition installations, ticket policies, and visitor services can change. The museum publishes current operating information, gallery notices, and ticket conditions on its official Met Fifth Avenue visitor page.