Metropolitan Museum of Art

Main Building 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), New York, NY 10028

The Cloisters 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, New York, NY 10040

http://www.metmuseum.org/

Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art

If there were a worldwide championship of museums it’s certain that the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Met as it’s commonly known, would be in the finals. Not only for it’s enormous amount of collections from the most important periods of human history, but also for the incredible quality of the objects on exhibit. Located on 5th Avenue in New York City, the Met puts on display more than 2 million spectacular works of European, medieval, Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Asian, and North-American.

European Art: The museum has the best collections of European paintings from the 16th through 19th centuries. You can see works by Monet, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Durero, Botticelli, Velazquez, El Greco and Goya among others.

Medieval Art: Covering western art from the 4th century through the beginning of the 16th, including Byzantine and pre-medieval works. Visitors will appreciate more than 11,000 pieces, many of which are religious relics. Because of it’s magnitude it’s the only collection divided into 2 parts (inside the museum and also in a separate building).

Green and Roman Art: Around 51,000 pieces from before 312 BC make up this collection including a Roman sarcophagus and objects that were buried when Vesuvius erupted.

Egyptian Art: More than 35,000 pieces make up this exhibit, coming from private collections and excavations made by the museum itself. The most well known piece at the Met is the Dendur which has been on display in one of the main salons since 1978.

Asian Art: The museum has more than 60,000 asian art pieces demonstrating work throughout a 4,000 year period. In this gallery you can marvel at paintings, engravings, sculptures, and metalwork from China, Nepal, and Tibet.

North American Art: A collection of around 1000 paintings and 600 sculptures and around 2,700 drawings which cover the colonial period and up through the 20th century.

The Met also has an exhibition area on the first floor for a spectacular installation piece similar to a parade of medieval knights in arms. The majority are from the middle ages of Europe and Japan (5th through 19th centuries). 15,000 pieces including the armor of Henry the 2nd of France, and Ferdinand the Roman Emperor.

The Met also exhibits 10.000 works of modern art by artists from the USA and Europe such as Picasso, Jasper Johns, Max Beckmann an Paul Klee among others.

Directions to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is easy to get to the Met in your rental car. The Met is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. Access can be made by both the 81 and the 82. The city of New York has a grid of streets that is easy to navigate; and if the rental car has a GPS in your language, getting to the museum is a breeze.

For those who do not have a rental car, and are traveling by public transport, you can take the subway lines 4,5 and 6 to 86th Street, and then walk West to Fifth Avenue, continuing South to 82nd Street.

Parking Information

It is best to use private parking if you want to park your rental car in the city, as parking meters only allow for a maximum stay of one hour, which is not enough time for a leisurely tour of the museum.

Other Attractions in the Area

American Museum of Natural History

Near Airports

New York JFK International Airport
JFK Airport