| Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as "the Met", is one of the world's largest and most important art museums. It is located on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The Met also maintains "The Cloisters", which features medieval art.
The Met's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. The collection's holdings range from treasures of classical antiquity, like those represented in its Greek and Cypriot galleries, to paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, to an extensive collection of American art. The collection also contains extensive holdings of Egyptian, African, Asian, Oceanic, Middle Eastern, Byzantine and Islamic art. An encyclopedic collection of Musical Instruments from all over the world is also on view, as are a number of recreations of notable interiors, including one by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Department of Arms and Armor displays a collection of antique weapons and armor from around the world, primarily Europe, but also Japan, the United States, and the Middle East, with extensive holdings from other cultures and periods in the study collection.
History
The Metropolitan Museum of Art first opened on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum, served as its first President, and the publisher George Palmer Putnam came on board as its founding Superintendent. Under their guidance, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould. The Met has remained in this location ever since, and the original structure is still part of its current building. A host of additions over the years, including the distinctive Beaux-Arts facade, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and completed in 1926, have continued to expand the museum's physical structure. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
Address
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028-0198
The Metropolitan Museum Posters
Directions
By Subway/Bus
From The Cloisters: Take the M4 bus directly to 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue.
From East Side of Manhattan: Take the #6 train to 86th Street and walk three blocks west to Fifth Avenue; or take the M1, M2, M3, or M4 bus along Fifth Avenue (from uptown locations) to 82nd Street or along Madison Avenue (from downtown locations) to 83rd Street.
From West Side of Manhattan: Take the #1 train to 86th Street, then the M86 crosstown bus across Central Park to Fifth Avenue.
From Penn Station: Take the M4 bus to 83rd Street and Madison Avenue.
By Car
From The Cloisters, Bronx, Northern New Jersey, and New England: Take southbound Henry Hudson Parkway to 96th Street exit; cross Central Park and turn right on Fifth Avenue; enter Museum parking garage at 80th Street.
From Brooklyn and Staten Island: Take Williamsburg Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, or battery Tunnel to northbound/uptown FDR Drive; exit at 96th Street; turn left on York Avenue; turn right on 86th Street; turn left on Fifth Avenue and enter Museum parking garage at 80th Street.
From Southern New Jersey: Take New Jersey Turnpike to Holland Tunnel-Uptown exit; northbound Hudson Street becomes Eighth Avenue, which becomes Central Park West; at 86th Street, turn right and cross Central Park; turn right on Fifth Avenue and enter Museum parking garage at 80th Street.
From Bronx, Queens, Long Island, Upstate New York, and New England via Triborough Bridge: Take southbound/downtown FDR Drive to 96th Street exit; turn left on York Avenue; turn right on 86th Street; turn left on Fifth Avenue and enter Museum parking garage at 80th Street.
From Queens and Long Island via Queensborough Bridge: Use either level; take right-lane exit onto 60th Street (westbound); at Madison Avenue, turn right and drive north/uptown; turn left on 81st Street then left on Fifth Avenue; enter Museum parking garage at 80th Street.
Hours
Friday 9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Saturday 9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sunday 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Monday Closed**
Tuesday 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Wednesday 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Thursday 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Closed Mondays (except as listed below), January 1, Thanksgiving Day, December 25
*Galleries are cleared at 5:15 p.m., Sunday-Thursday, and 8:45 p.m., Friday and Saturday
**The Main Building of the Metropolitan Museum-its galleries, public restaurants, and shops-will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the following Met Holiday Mondays:
* Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: January 15, 2007
* Presidents' Day: February 19, 2007
* Memorial Day: May 28, 2007
* Independence Day Weekend: July 2, 2007
* Labor Day: September 3, 2007
* Columbus Day: October 8, 2007
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