For a century and a half, the Metropolitan Museum has been building a world-class collection of art and artifacts from around the world, across time. Seventeen curatorial departments study, exhibit, and care for the objects in the Museum's collection.
One of the world's largest art museums, includes American art and decorative arts, European, African, Asian, Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek art, Byzantine and Islamic art, and modern art. The Museum's comprehensive collection of medieval and Byzantine art is displayed in both the Main Building and in the northern Manhattan satellite location, The Cloisters museum and gardens.
The Museum mounts dozens of special, temporary exhibitions. It was the Met that invented the "blockbuster" exhibition.
Exhibitions & Dates
Art and Peoples of the Kharga Oasis
Oct 11 2017 - Jun 7 2020
30 works from 1908 excavations in Egypt's Western Desert
Sita and Rama: The Ramayana in Indian Painting
Aug 10 2019 - Aug 30 2020
17th-19th century paintings capture a 5th-century B.C epic narrative
In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met
Oct 16 2018 -
Some 75 works, organized thematically, present key issues in 17th-century Dutch culture
Children to Immortals: Figural Representations in Chinese Art
Aug 9 2018 - Jul 5 2020
1000 years of figural representation, conveying the inner spirit
Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection
Oct 4 2018 -
116 masterworks from more than 40 indigenous traditions (2nd to early-20th century)
The Art of London Firearms
Jan 29 2019 - May 17 2020
Fifteen important London-made firearms, dating c.1760 through 1830
Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera
Dec 17 2018 -
Fifty+ works explore large-scale abstract painting, sculpture, and assemblage
Jewelry for America
Jun 10 2019 - Apr 5 2020
100 works explore the evolution of jewelry in the U.S.
Frank Lloyd Wright Textiles: The Taliesin Line, 1955–60
May 20 2019 - Apr 5 2020
"Schumacher's Taliesin Line of Decorative Fabrics and Wallpapers Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright"
Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination
Jul 24 2019 - Sep 20 2020
50+ paintings and 80+ masterworks of decorative arts, from ancient to modern times
The Facade Commission: Wangechi Mutu
Sep 9 2019 - Jun 8 2020
New annual commission of sculptures for the Museum facade niches
Rayyane Tabet Alien Property
Oct 30 2019 - Jan 18 2021
9th-century B.C. stone reliefs and their connection to contemporary artist Rayyane Tabet
Relative Values: The Cost of Art in the Northern Renaissance
Aug 7 2017 - Feb 28 2021
62 northern-European artworks explore questions of worth
In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection
Nov 27 2019 - May 17 2020
One of the greatest private collections of 20th-century costume
Arte del mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean
Dec 16 2019 - Jan 10 2021
Artistic exchange around the Caribbean before the 16th century
The Great Hall Commission: Kent Monkman, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People)
Dec 19 2019 - Apr 9 2020
Two monumental paintings commissioned for The Met's Great Hall
2020 Vision: Photographs, 1840s–1860s
Dec 2 2019 - May 10 2020
Highlights the important role of gifts in developing the Met's collection
The Gosford Wellhead: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece
Jun 1 2020 - Feb 14 2021
Exploring a wide range of topics related to Rome and its antiquities
Aesthetic Splendors: - Highlights from the Gift of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore
Dec 2 2019 - Aug 16 2020
Some fifty examples of paintings and decorative arts from the American Aesthetic movement and the Gilded Age.
Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara
Jan 30 2020 - May 10 2020
Some 150 objects trace the legacy of African empires and their visual arts
Photography's Last Century - The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
Mar 10 2020 - Jun 28 2020
More than sixty photographs provide an essential history and new interpretation of the medium.
Making The Met, 1870–2020
Mar 30 2020 - Aug 2 2020
More than 250 superlative works of art celebrate the history of the Met
About Time: Fashion and Duration
May 7 2020 - Sep 7 2020
More than a century and a half of fashion explores how clothes generate temporal associations
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle
Jun 2 2020 - Sep 7 2020
The multi-paneled work reunited for the first time in more than half a century
Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.
Jul 13 2020 - Oct 4 2020
Items from Moore's notable personal collection plus examples of his silver Tiffany designs.
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England
Oct 6 2020 - Jan 10 2021
Explores the legacy of the Tudor dynasty in the visual arts
Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 B.C.–A.D. 400
Nov 16 2020 - Feb 14 2021
More than 150 objects Buddhist art from 200 B.C. through A.D. 400
Cubism and the Trompe l'Oeil Tradition
Nov 27 2020 - Feb 28 2021
A radically new view of Cubism with examples of 300 years of trompe l'oeil
Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Up Close
Jan 25 2020 - Jan 3 2021
Close looking at the heart of Chinese painting and calligraphy