Editing Metropolitan Museum of Art (section)

=== Non-geographically designated collections ===
==== Arms and armor ====
[[File:Middle Age Main Hall.jpg|thumb|left|Arms and armor, Middle Ages main hall]]
The Met's Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museum's most popular collections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/art-of-collecting-arms-and-armor|title=Arms and Armor: Notable Acquisitions 2003–2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928010140/http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/art-of-collecting-arms-and-armor|archive-date=September 28, 2017}}</ref> Several early trustees of the museum were armor enthusiasts. The 1904 purchase of the collection of Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, duc de Dino, served as the foundational collection. It became a great collection with the gift and bequest of the Henry Riggs collection of 2,000 pieces, which was one of the finest assembled by a single person. It came to the museum in 1913 and 1925. Another collection landmark took place in 1936, when George Cameron Stone bequeathed 3,000 pieces of Asian armor. Bashford Dean, the first arms curator, did much to build up the collection, including with gifts he and his friends made directly to the Met, which enabled the purchase of his personal collection.<ref name="Mayor-1957" /><ref name="Tomkins-1989" /><ref name="www.metmuseum.org-2020" />

Stephen V. Grancsay, the second arms curator at the museum, ably added to the collection, and he even purchased important works from Clarence H. Mackay (the greatest contemporary private collector of this material, who was wiped out by the Great Depression). Grancsay later resold some of these important works to the museum at cost.<ref name="Tomkins-1989">{{Cite book |last=Tomkins |first=Calvin |title=Merchants and Masterpieces |publisher=Henry Holt & C. |year=1989 |isbn=0-8050-1034-3 |edition=Revised and updated |location=New York |pages=}}</ref>

The department's focus on "outstanding craftsmanship and decoration," including pieces intended solely for display, means that the collection is strongest in [[Late Middle Ages|late medieval]] [[Europe]]an pieces and [[Japan]]ese pieces from the 5th through 19th centuries. However, these are not the only cultures represented in Arms and Armor; the collection spans more geographic regions than almost any other department, including weapons and armor from [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt|dynastic Egypt]], [[ancient Greece]], the [[Roman Empire]], the ancient [[Near East]], Africa, [[Oceania]], and the [[Americas]], as well as American firearms (especially [[Colt's Manufacturing Company|Colt]] firearms) from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the collection's 14,000 objects<ref>{{cite web |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Arms and Armor |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/arms-and-armor |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515172056/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/arms-and-armor |archive-date=May 15, 2012 |access-date=June 11, 2012 |publisher=Metmuseum.org}}</ref> are the oldest items in the museum: flint bifaces which date to 700,000–200,000 BCE. There are also many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to [[Henry VIII of England]], [[Henry II of France]], and [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arms and Armor—Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aams/hd_aams.htm |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=www.metmuseum.org|date=October 2004 }}</ref> A. Hyatt Mayor called the Met's collection "the only single collection from which one might illustrate the whole history of the subject.<ref name="Mayor-1957" />

The distinctive "parade" of armored figures on horseback installed in the first-floor Arms and Armor gallery is one of the most recognizable images of the museum, which was organized in 1975 with the help of the Russian immigrant and arms and armor scholar, Leonid Tarassuk (1925–90).

In 2020 the Met announced Ronald S. Lauder's promised gift of 91 objects from his collection, describing it as "the most significant grouping of European arms and armor given to the Museum since 1942," one that is "outstanding for the exceptional rarity and quality of the objects, their illustrious origins, and their typological variety."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art to Receive Major Gift of European Arms and Armor from Ronald S. Lauder – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2020/ronald-lauder-gift#:~:text=(New%20York,%20December%209,,to%20the%20Museum%20since%201942. |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.metmuseum.org| date=December 9, 2020 }}</ref> Lauder, who noted that he had begun collecting with the assistance of curator Grancsay almost 55 years earlier, also donated money for the study and presentation of arms and armor. The 11 galleries were named in Lauder's honor.

==== Costume Institute ====
{{main|Anna Wintour Costume Center}}
[[File:Robe à la Française MET DT3884.jpg|thumb|Robe à la française 1740s, as seen in one of the exhibits at the Costume Institute]]
The Museum of Costume Art was founded by [[Aline Bernstein]] and [[Irene Lewisohn]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/68652.html |title=1944 |access-date=December 16, 2008 |quote=Philanthropist Irene Lewisohn died today in New York City. She and her sister Alice built and endowed the Neighborhood Playhouse. With Aline Bernstein she founded the Museum of Costume Art on Fifth Avenue in 1937. |magazine=[[Playbill]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408051558/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/68652.html |archive-date=April 8, 2009 }}</ref> In 1946, with the financial support of the fashion industry, the Museum of Costume Art merged with The Metropolitan Museum of Art as The Costume Institute, and in 1959 became a curatorial department.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/the-costume-institute|title=The Costume Institute {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art|website=www.metmuseum.org|access-date=April 2, 2019}}</ref> Today, its collection contains more than 35,000 costumes and accessories.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/the-costume-institute |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Costume Institute |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621225542/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/the-costume-institute |archive-date=June 21, 2012 }}</ref> The Costume Institute used to have a permanent gallery space in what was known as the "Basement" area of the Met because it was downstairs at the bottom of the Met facility. However, due to the fragile nature of the items in the collection, the Costume Institute does not maintain a permanent installation. Instead, every year it holds two separate shows in the Met's galleries using costumes from its collection, with each show centering on a specific designer or theme. The Costume Institute is known for hosting the annual [[Met Gala]] and in the past has presented summer exhibitions such as [[Savage Beauty (exhibition)|Savage Beauty]] and [[China: Through the Looking Glass]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Bourne |first=Leah |url=http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/threadny/THREAD-Everything-You-Ever-Wanted-to-Know-About-the-Met-Gala-But-Were-Too-Afraid-To-Ask-121096889.html |title=Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Met Gala (But Were Too Afraid To Ask) |publisher=NBC New York |date=May 5, 2011 |access-date=May 2, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502032814/http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/threadny/THREAD-Everything-You-Ever-Wanted-to-Know-About-the-Met-Gala-But-Were-Too-Afraid-To-Ask-121096889.html |archive-date=May 2, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Trebay|first1=Guy|title=At the Met, Andrew Bolton Is the Storyteller in Chief|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/fashion/mens-style/at-the-met-andrew-bolton-is-the-storyteller-in-chief.html|access-date=August 13, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=April 29, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002173729/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/fashion/mens-style/at-the-met-andrew-bolton-is-the-storyteller-in-chief.html|archive-date=October 2, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Tomkins|first1=Calvin|title=Anarchy Unleashed|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/25/anarchy-unleashed|access-date=August 13, 2015|magazine=The New Yorker|date=March 25, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016060324/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/03/25/anarchy-unleashed|archive-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref>

In past years, Costume Institute shows organized around designers such as [[Cristóbal Balenciaga]], [[Chanel]], [[Yves Saint Laurent (designer)|Yves Saint Laurent]], and [[Gianni Versace]]; and style doyenne like [[Diana Vreeland]], [[Mona von Bismarck]], [[Babe Paley]], [[Jayne Wrightsman]], [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis]], [[Nan Kempner]], and [[Iris Apfel]] have drawn significant crowds to the Met. The [[Met Ball|Costume Institute's annual Benefit Gala]], co-chaired by ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' editor-in-chief [[Anna Wintour]], is an extremely popular, if exclusive, event in the fashion world; in 2007, the 700 available tickets started at $6,500 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=6500|start_year=2007}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) per person.<ref>{{cite news |last=Postrel |first=Virginia |title=Dress Sense |date=May 2007 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |page=133}}</ref>
Exhibits displayed over the past decade in the Costume Institute include: Rock Style, in 1999,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-05-05 |title=Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney Reminisce About the Time They Wore Hanes to the Met Gala |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/liv-tyler-stella-mccartney-oral-history-1999-met-gala-look |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}</ref> representing the style of more than 40 rock musicians, including [[Madonna]], [[David Bowie]], and [[the Beatles]]; Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed, in 2001, which exposes the transforming ideas of physical beauty over time and the bodily contortion necessary to accommodate such ideals and fashion;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/extreme_beauty_the_body_transformed |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> The [[Chanel]] Exhibit, displayed in 2005,<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |date=2018-09-04 |title=Chanel Returning to the Met for Its Pre-Fall Show |url=https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/chanel-returning-to-the-met-for-its-pre-fall-show-1202774706/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=WWD |language=en-US}}</ref> acknowledging the skilled work of designer [[Coco Chanel]] as one of the leading fashion names in history; Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, exhibited in 2008,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Eric |date=2008-05-06 |title=Stars and Superheroes Sparkle at Museum Gala |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/nyregion/06gala.html |access-date=2023-01-12 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> suggesting the metaphorical vision of superheroes as ultimate fashion icons; the 2010 exhibit on the American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, which exposes the revolutionary styles of the American woman from the years 1890 to 1940, and how such styles reflect the political and social sentiments of the time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-07-28 |title=Photos From 'American Woman:Fashioning A National Identity' At The Met |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/photos-from-american-woma_n_632781 |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref> The theme of the 2011 event was "[[Alexander McQueen]]: [[Savage Beauty (exhibition)|Savage Beauty]]".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Eric |date=2011-07-29 |title=At the Met, McQueen's Final Showstopper |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/fashion/mets-mcqueen-retrospective-is-expected-to-break-records.html |access-date=2023-01-12 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Each of these exhibits explores fashion as a mirror of cultural values and offers a glimpse into historical styles, emphasizing their evolution into today's own fashion world. On January 14, 2014, the Met named the Costume Institute complex after [[Anna Wintour]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/met-names-costume-institute-complex-in-honor-of-anna-wintour-7360586?src=nl/mornReport/20140115 |title=Met Names Costume Institute Complex in Honor of Anna Wintour |magazine=[[Women's Wear Daily]] |date=January 14, 2014 |access-date=January 15, 2014 |author=Karimzadeh, Marc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116152221/http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/met-names-costume-institute-complex-in-honor-of-anna-wintour-7360586?src=nl%2FmornReport%2F20140115 |archive-date=January 16, 2014 }}</ref> The curator is [[Andrew Bolton (curator)|Andrew Bolton]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chu |first=Christie |date=2015-09-09 |title=Andrew Bolton Takes Over Costume Institute |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andrew-bolton-curator-metropolitan-museum-331144 |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=Artnet News}}</ref>

==== Drawings and prints ====
[[File:Dürer Melancholia I.jpg|thumb|''[[Melencolia I]]'' by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]
Though other departments contain significant numbers of [[drawing]]s and [[Printmaking|prints]], the Drawings and Prints department specifically concentrates on [[North America]]n pieces and [[Western Europe]]an works produced after the [[Middle Ages]]. The first gift of Old Master drawings, comprising 670 sheets, was presented as a single group in 1880 by [[Cornelius Vanderbilt II]], though most proved to be misattributed.<ref name="Tomkins-1989" /> The Vanderbilt gift launched the collection, and the Department of Paintings also eventually acquired drawings (including by [[Michelangelo]] and [[Leonardo da Vinci|Leonardo]]). In the meantime, the Met library began to collect prints. Harris Brisbane Dick's donation of thirty-five hundred works on paper (mostly nineteenth-century etchings) and a fund for acquisitions led to the hiring of [[William Ivins Jr.|William M. Ivins Jr]]. in 1916.<ref name="History of the Department">{{Cite web |title=History of the Department |url=https://www3.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/drawings-and-prints/history-of-the-department |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Tomkins-1989" />

As the museum's first curator of prints, Ivans established the mission of collecting images that would reveal "the whole gamut of human life and endeavor, from the most ephemeral of courtesies to the loftiest pictorial presentation of man's spiritual aspirations." Over the next 30 years, he built what is credited as the best collection in the nation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gertrude Käsebier {{!}} William M. Ivins Jr. |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/263962 |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> Ivans opened three galleries and a study room in 1971. He curated almost sixty exhibitions, and his influential publications included ''How Prints Look'' (1943) and ''Prints and Visual Communication'' (1953), in addition to almost two hundred articles for the museum's ''Bulletin.''<ref name="www.metmuseum.org-2020">{{Cite web |date=2020 |editor-last=Bayer |editor-first=Andrea |editor2=Laura D. Corey  |title=Making The Met, 1870–2020 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Making_The_Met_1870-2020 |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=www.metmuseum.org |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |place=New York |language=en}}</ref> Ivans and his successor [[A. Hyatt Mayor]] (hired 1932, 1946-66 Curator of Prints) collected hundreds of thousands of works, including photographs, books, architectural drawings, modern artworks on paper, posters, trade cards, and other ephemera.<ref name="History of the Department"/> Important early donors to the department include: [[Junius Spencer Morgan II]], who presented a broad range of material, mainly 16th century, including woodblocks and many prints by [[Albrecht Dürer]] in 1919; Gothic woodcuts and Rembrandt etchings from the [[Felix M. Warburg]] family; James Clark McGuire's transformative bequest brought over seven hundred fifteenth-century woodcuts; prints by Rembrandt, [[Edgar Degas]], and [[Mary Cassatt]] with the [[Henry Osborne Havemeyer|H.O. Havemeyer]] Collection in 1929. Ivans also purchased five albums from the auction of the Earl of Pembroke's collection, and the 2,200 prints in these albums provided a nucleus of Italian prints.<ref name="www.metmuseum.org-2020" /><ref name="History of the Department"/>

Meanwhile, acquisitions of drawings, including an album of 50 [[Francisco Goya|Goyas]] (thanks to Ivans, the Met collected almost 300 works by Goya on paper) continued to be processed through the Department of Paintings.  In 1960, a Department of Drawings was established under Jacob Bean, who served as curator until 1992, during which time the museum's collection of drawings nearly doubled in size, with strengths in French and Italian works.<ref name="www.metmuseum.org-2020" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Department |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/drawings-and-prints/history-of-the-department |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>

Finally, in 1993, a unified Department of Drawings and Prints was created for all works on paper, chaired by [[George R. Goldner|George Goldner]], who sought to rectify collecting imbalances by adding works by Dutch, Flemish, Central European, Danish, and British artists. The department has been led by [[Nadine Orenstein]], Drue Heinz Curator in Charge since 2015. A particularly important recent gift was that of the Leslie and Johanna Garfield Collection of British Modernism in 2019.<ref name="History of the Department"/>

The broadened collecting horizons of the museum in the post-Black Lives Matter era have been displayed in the exhibition of contemporary political works on paper called "Revolution, Resistance, and Activism", held at the Met in 2021-22. It included such works as the Guerrilla Girls' famous poster ''Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?,'' 1987, Julie Torres' ''Super Diva!,'' 2020 (a posthumous image of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and Ben Blount's ''Black Women's Wisdom,'' 2019.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cordova |first=Ruben |date=November 28, 2021 |title=Taking it to the Street: the Guerrilla Girls' Struggle for Diversity |url=https://glasstire.com/2021/11/28/taking-it-to-the-street-the-guerrilla-girls-struggle-for-diversity/ |work=Glasstire}}</ref>

Currently, the Drawings and Prints collection contains about 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books made in Europe and the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Drawings and Prints |url=https://www3.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/drawings-and-prints |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> Many of the great masters of European painting, who produced many more sketches and drawings than actual paintings, are represented in the Drawing and Prints collection, sometimes in great concentrations. Prints are also represented in multiple states. Many artists and makers whose work is in the prints and drawings collection are otherwise not represented in the museum's holdings.

==== Robert Lehman Collection ====
[[File:Robert Lehman Wing - Visitors Watching Impressionist Masters.JPG|thumb|Robert Lehman Wing]]
On the death of banker [[Robert Lehman]] in 1969, his Foundation donated 2,600 works of art to the museum, which had been collected by Robert and his father.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/the-robert-lehman-collection |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Robert Lehman Collection |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608075133/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/the-robert-lehman-collection |archive-date=June 8, 2012 }}</ref> Housed in the "Robert Lehman Wing", on the ground floor and the basement level, the museum refers to the collection as "one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States".<ref>{{cite press release|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/Press_Room/full_release.asp?prid=6E3EF378-71B3-4FD1-B7ED-BC5F36E57CD0 |date=September 1999 |title=The Robert Lehman Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212213810/http://www.metmuseum.org/Press_Room/full_release.asp?prid=6E3EF378-71B3-4FD1-B7ED-BC5F36E57CD0 |archive-date=February 12, 2006}}</ref> To emphasize the personal nature of the Robert Lehman Collection, the Met housed the collection in a special set of galleries, some of which evoked the interior of Lehman's richly decorated [[townhouse]] at [[7 West 54th Street]]. This intentional separation of the Collection as a "museum within the museum" met with mixed criticism and approval at the time, though the acquisition of the collection was seen as a coup for the Met.<ref name="Hoving-1993">{{cite book| first=Thomas| last=Hoving| title=Making the Mummies Dance| url=https://archive.org/details/makingmummiesdan00thom| url-access=registration| location=New York| publisher=Simon and Schuster| year= 1993| isbn=978-0671738549}}</ref> Some have argued that it would be educationally more beneficial to have works from given schools of painting in the same section of the museum.

Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a specific style or period of art; rather, it is a reflection of Lehman's personal collecting interests. The Lehmans concentrated heavily on paintings of the [[Italian Renaissance]], particularly the [[Siena|Sienese]] school. Sienese highlights include multiple major paintings by Ugolino da Siena, [[Simone Martini]], [[Sano di Pietro]], and [[Giovanni di Paolo]], as well as a remarkable work by the [[Master of the Osservanza Triptych|Osservanza Master]]. Other choice Italian paintings in the collection include masterpieces like [[Botticelli]]'s  ''Annunciation'', a pair of stunning portraits by [[Jacometto Veneziano]], and a stellar [[Madonna and Child]] by [[Giovanni Bellini]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 1, Italian Paintings – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Vol_1_Italian_Paintings |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> The Northern school of painting is represented by [[Petrus Christus]], [[Hans Memling]], the Master of Moulins ([[Jean Hey]]), [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Hans Holbein]], and [[Lucas Cranach the Elder|Lucas Cranach]] and his studio. Dutch and Spanish Baroque highlights include the [[Spain|Spanish]] painters [[El Greco]] and [[Francisco Goya|Goya]], and the Dutch masters [[Rembrandt]], [[Gerard ter Borch|Ter Borch]], and de Hooch.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 2, Fifteenth- to Eighteenth-Century European Paintings: France, Central Europe, The Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Vol_2_Fifteenth_to_Eighteenth_Century_European_Paintings_France_Ce |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref>

Lehman's collection of 700 drawings by the [[Old Masters]], featuring works by [[Rembrandt]] and [[Albrecht Dürer|Dürer]], is particularly valuable for its breadth and quality. The collection also has French 18th and 19th century drawings,<ref>{{Cite web |title=French Nineteenth-Century Drawings in the Robert Lehman Collection – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2002/french-nineteenthcentury-drawings-in-the-robert-lehman-collection |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org|date=November 7, 2002 }}</ref> as well as nearly two-hundred 18th century Venetian drawings, mostly by the Tiepolos.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/18/arts/art-review-feast-of-illuminations-and-drawings.html| title=Art Review: Feast of Illuminations and Drawings| first=John| last=Russell| work=The New York Times| date=February 18, 2000| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327004847/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E0DF1131F93BA25751C0A9669C8B63| archive-date=March 27, 2008}}</ref>

The collection of bronzes, furniture, Renaissance [[Maiolica|majolica]], [[Venetian glass]], enamels, jewelry, textiles, and frames is outstanding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Robert Lehman Collection, Volume XV: European and Asian Decorative Arts – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Volume_XV_European_and_Asian_Decorative_Arts |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> The Lehman collection of Italian majolica is regarded as the best in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 10, Italian Majolica – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Vol_10_Italian_Majolica |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref>

Robert Lehman also collected many nineteenth and twentieth century paintings. These include works by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]], [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot|Corot]], the [[Barbizon School]], [[Claude Monet|Monet]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]], [[Paul Cézanne|Cezanne]], [[Paul Gauguin|Gauguin]], [[Vincent van Gogh|Van Gogh]], [[Georges Seurat|Seurat]], and a number of Fauve painters, including [[Henri Matisse|Matisse]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 3, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Paintings – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Robert_Lehman_Collection_Vol_3_Nineteenth_and_Twentieth_Century_Paintings |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> [[Princeton University Press]] has documented the massive collection in a multi-volume book series published as ''The Robert Lehman Collection Catalogues''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sterling |first1=Charles |title=The Robert Lehman Collection |year=1987 |page=6 |url=https://archive.org/details/robertlehmancoll0000metr_i9v6 |access-date=11 January 2022}}</ref>

==== Medieval art and the Cloisters ====
[[File:Pol, Jean, and Herman de Limbourg.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Limbourg brothers]]' ''[[Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry]]'']]
The Met's collection of medieval art consists of a comprehensive range of Western art from the 4th through the early 16th centuries, as well as [[Byzantine art|Byzantine]] and pre-medieval European antiquities not included in the Ancient Greek and Roman collection. Like the Islamic collection, the Medieval collection contains a broad range of two- and three-dimensional art, with religious objects heavily represented. In total, the Medieval Art department's permanent collection numbers over 10,000 separate objects, divided between the main museum building on Fifth Avenue and [[The Cloisters]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/general-information/2010/medieval-art-and-the-cloisters|title=Medieval Art and The Cloisters|date=July 16, 2008|website=The Met|access-date=March 6, 2019}}</ref>

===== Main building =====
The medieval collection in the main Metropolitan building, centered on the first-floor medieval gallery, contains about 6,000 separate objects. While a great deal of European medieval art is on display in these galleries, most of the European pieces are concentrated at the Cloisters (see below). However, this allows the main galleries to display much of the Met's Byzantine art side by side with European pieces. The main gallery is host to a wide range of tapestries and church and funerary statuary, while side galleries display smaller works of precious metals and ivory, including [[reliquary]] pieces and secular items. The main gallery, with its high arched ceiling, also serves double duty as the annual site of the Met's elaborately decorated Christmas tree.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2022/christmas-tree |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>

===== The Cloisters museum and gardens =====
{{Main|The Cloisters}}
[[File:The Cloisters Hudson River crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[The Cloisters]] from the Hudson River]]
[[File:The Cloisters - The MET Cloisters - Joy of Museums - 2.jpg|thumb|Interior of the Cloisters]]
The Cloisters was a principal project of [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]], a major benefactor of the Met. Located in [[Fort Tryon Park]] and completed in 1938, it is a separate building dedicated solely to medieval art. The Cloisters collection was originally that of a separate museum, assembled by [[George Grey Barnard]] and acquired ''in toto'' by Rockefeller in 1925 as a gift to the Met.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cloisters Museum and Gardens |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/history-of-the-museum/the-cloisters-museum-and-gardens |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415030814/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/history-of-the-museum/the-cloisters-museum-and-gardens |archive-date=April 15, 2012 }}</ref>

The Cloisters are so named on account of the five medieval French [[cloisters]] whose salvaged structures were incorporated into the modern building, and the five thousand objects at the Cloisters are strictly limited to medieval European works.<ref>{{cite book|last2=Suda|first2=Alexandra|last1=Ellis|first1=Lisa|title=Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures |year=2016|publisher=Art Gallery of Ontario|location=Ontario, Canada|isbn=978-1-89424-390-2|page=89}}</ref> The collection features items of outstanding beauty and historical importance; among these are the ''[[Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry]]'' illustrated by the [[Limbourg Brothers]] in 1409,<ref>{{cite book |last=Husband |first=Timothy |title=The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry|year=2008 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York |isbn=978-1-58839-294-7|page=x}}</ref> the [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] altar cross known as the "[[Cloisters Cross]]" or "Bury Cross",<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barnet|first1=Peter|last2=Wu|first2=Nancy Y.|title=The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture|year=2005|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|location=New York|isbn=978-1-58839-176-6|url=https://archive.org/details/cloistersmedieva00barn/page/57|page=[https://archive.org/details/cloistersmedieva00barn/page/57 57]}}</ref> and the seven [[tapestry|tapestries]] depicting the [[The Hunt of the Unicorn|Hunt of the Unicorn]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bolton|first=Andrew|title=Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, CT|year=2018|isbn=978-1-58839-645-7|page=294}}</ref>

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==== Modern and contemporary art ====
With some 13,000 artworks, primarily by European and American artists, the modern art collection occupies {{convert|60000|sqft|m2|-3}}, of gallery space<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hickman |first=Matt |date=2021-11-30 |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art bestowed with $125 million to renovate its modern art wing |url=https://www.archpaper.com/2021/11/metropolitan-museum-of-art-125-million-to-launch-renovation-of-its-modern-art-wing/ |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=The Architect's Newspaper |language=en-US}}</ref> and contains many iconic modern works. Cornerstones of the collection include [[Picasso]]'s portrait of [[Gertrude Stein]], [[Jasper Johns]]'s ''[[White Flag (Johns painting)|White Flag]]'', [[Jackson Pollock]]'s ''[[Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)]]'', and [[Max Beckmann]]'s [[triptych]] ''Beginning''. Certain artists are represented in remarkable depth, for a museum whose focus is not exclusively on modern art: for example, ninety works constitute the museum's Paul Klee collection, donated by [[Heinz Berggruen]], spanning the entirety of the artist's life.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/06/arts/90-works-by-paul-klee-donated-to-met-museum.html|title=90 Works by Paul Klee Donated to Met Museum|last=Brenson|first=Michael|date=June 6, 1984|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 1, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Due to the Met's long history, "contemporary" paintings acquired in years past have often migrated to other collections at the museum, particularly to the American and European Paintings departments.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Tomkins |first=Calvin |title=The Met and the Now |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/the-met-and-the-now |access-date=2022-05-25 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=January 18, 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In April 2013, it was reported that the museum was to receive a collection worth $1&nbsp;billion (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=1000000000|start_year=2013}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) from cosmetics tycoon [[Leonard Lauder]]. The collection of [[Cubism|Cubist]] art includes work by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris and went on display in 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/leonard-lauder-donates-1-billion-art-collection-to-the-met-museum|title=Leonard Lauder Donates $1 Billion Art Collection To Met|website=British Vogue|date=April 10, 2013}}</ref> The Met has since added to the collection, for example spending $31.8&nbsp;million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=31800000|start_year=2018}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) for Gris' ''The musician's table'' in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=Acquisitions of the month: August–September 2018 |url=https://www.apollo-magazine.com/acquisitions-of-the-month-august-september-2018/ |website=Apollo Magazine|date=October 3, 2018 }}</ref>

==== Musical instruments ====
[[File:Grand Pianoforte MET DP225545.jpg|thumb|Grand piano by [[Sébastien Érard]], {{circa|1840}}]]
The Met's collection of musical instruments, with about 5,000 examples of musical instruments from all over the world, is virtually unique among major museums.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/musical-instruments |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Musical Instruments |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529084750/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/musical-instruments |archive-date=May 29, 2012 }}</ref> The collection began in 1889 with a donation of 270 instruments by [[Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown]], who joined her collection to become the museum's first curator of musical instruments, named in honor of her husband, [[John Crosby Brown]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown's Collection Celebrates 125 Years at the Met |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/of-note/2014/mary-elizabeth-brown-collection |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=www.metmuseum.org|date=February 18, 2014 }}</ref> By the time she died, the collection had 3,600 instruments that she had donated and the collection was housed in five galleries. Instruments were (and continue to be) included in the collection not only on aesthetic grounds, but also insofar as they embodied technical and social aspects of their cultures of origin. The modern Musical Instruments collection is encyclopedic in scope; every continent is represented at virtually every stage of its musical life. Highlights of the department's collection include several [[Antonio Stradivari|Stradivari]] [[violin]]s, a collection of [[Asia]]n instruments made from precious metals, and the oldest surviving [[piano]], a 1720 model by [[Bartolomeo Cristofori]]. Many of the instruments in the collection are playable, and the department encourages their use by holding concerts and demonstrations by guest musicians.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000104076 |title=The conservation of musical ins trurnents |author=R. L. Barclay |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=unesdoc.unesco.org}}</ref>

==== Photographs ====
[[File:La Tour St. Jacques La Boucherie à Paris ca. 1867.jpg|thumb|''La Tour St. Jacques La Boucherie à Paris'' by Charles Soulier, 1867]]
The Met's collection of [[photograph]]s, numbering more than 25,000 in total,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/photographs |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Photographs |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120621234446/http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/photographs |archive-date=June 21, 2012 }}</ref> is centered on five major collections plus additional acquisitions by the museum. [[Alfred Stieglitz]], a photographer himself, donated the first major collection of photographs to the museum,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Alfred Stieglitz Collection {{!}} About |url=https://archive.artic.edu/stieglitz/about/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Art Institute of Chicago |language=en-US}}</ref> which included a comprehensive survey of [[Pictorialism|Photo-Secessionist]] works, a rich set of master prints by [[Edward Steichen]], and an outstanding collection of Stieglitz's photographs from his own studio. The Met supplemented Stieglitz's gift with the 8,500-piece [[Gilman Paper Company Collection]], the Rubel Collection, and the Ford Motor Company Collection, which respectively provided the collection with early French and American photography, early British photography, and post-[[World War I|WWI]] American and European photography. The museum also acquired [[Walker Evans]]'s personal collection of photographs, a particular coup considering the high demand for his works.

The department of photography was founded in 1992. Though the department gained a permanent gallery in 1997, not all of the department's holdings are on display at any given time, due to the sensitive materials represented in the photography collection. However, the Photographs department has produced some of the best-received temporary exhibits in the Met's recent past, including a [[Diane Arbus]] retrospective and an extensive show devoted to spirit photography. In 2007, the museum designated a gallery exclusively for the exhibition of photographs made after 1960.<ref>{{cite news| first=Karen| last=Rosenberg| date=September 28, 2007| title=Modern Photography in a Brand-New Space| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/arts/design/28mens.html| work=The New York Times| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160723014034/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/arts/design/28mens.html| archive-date=July 23, 2016}}</ref>

====Film====
The Met has an extensive archive consisting of 1,500 films made and collected by the museum since the 1920s. As part of the museum's 150 anniversary commemoration, since January 2020, the museum uploads a film from its archive weekly onto YouTube.<ref>{{Citation|title=Behind the Scenes: The Working Side of the Museum, 1928 {{!}} From the Vaults| date=January 31, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WgClpYaeDY|language=en|access-date=February 1, 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Themetcollection.svg|thumb|The Met collection]]