Editing Metropolitan Museum of Art (section)

===Old Master paintings===
The collection began when 174 paintings were purchased from European dealers in 1871.<ref name="Metmuseum.org" /> Almost two-thirds of these paintings have been deaccessioned, but quality paintings by Jordaens, Van Dyck, Poussin, the Tiepolos, Guardi, and some other artists remain in the collection.<ref name="www.metmuseum.org">{{Cite web |title="Buying Pictures for New York: The Founding Purchase of 1871": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 39 (2004) – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Buying_Pictures_for_New_York_The_Metropolitan_Museum_Journal_v_39_2004 |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> Major gifts from Henry Gurdon Marquand in 1889, 1890 and 1891<ref name="Quodbach-2017" /> gave the Met a much more solid foundation. Additionally, his example helped to create a taste for collecting Old Master paintings. In 1913, the Benjamin Altman bequest had sufficient range and depth to put the Met's collection of paintings on the map. In 1949, the Jules Bache gift added more great paintings.<ref name="Mayor-1957">Mayor, A. Hyatt. “The Gifts That Made the Museum.” ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' 16, no. 3 (1957): 85–107. {{doi|10.2307/3257714}}.</ref> The Robert Lehman Collection, which came to the museum in 1975, included many significant paintings, and is particularly strong in early Renaissance material. Over a period of decades, Charles and Jayne Wrightsman donated 94 works of unusually high quality to the Department of European Paintings, the last of which came with Mrs. Wrightsman's bequest in 2019. Notwithstanding the contributions made by Marquand, Altman, Bache, and Lehman, it has been written that "the Wrightsman paintings are highest in overall quality and condition."<ref name="Cordova-2020">{{Cite news |last=Cordova |first=Ruben C. |date=June 15, 2020 |title=Oil Begets Oil: Wrightsman Gifts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of European Paintings |work=Glasstire |url=https://glasstire.com/2020/06/15/oil-begets-oil-wrightsman-gifts-to-the-metropolitan-museum-of-arts-department-of-european-paintings/}}</ref> The latter "collected expertise as well as art," and advanced technology made better choices possible.<ref name="Cordova-2020" /> Additionally, the Wrightsmans had the Met's curators at their disposal, for whom they served as a virtual "auxiliary purchase fund for objects the Met curators coveted, but could not afford."<ref name="Cordova-2020" />

====Plein Air, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist Painting====
The Met's plein air painting collection, which it calls "unrivaled",<ref name="Metmuseum.org-1" /> was the last large section of the European Paintings collection to have a home at the museum. The sale of a Monet and the construction of small scale galleries ultimately resulted in the acquisition of 220 European paintings (most of them plein-air sketches) from two collections. The Monet was used to purchase a half share of Wheelock "Lock" Whitney III's collection in 2003 (the remainder came as a promised gift), and when Eugene V. Thaw (1927–2018) saw how good they looked in the Met's new, purpose built galleries, he and his wife Clare donated their substantially larger collection to the Met (much of it a joint gift to the Morgan Library). The Met easily has the best collection of this material in the nation, and one of the three or four best in the world.<ref name="Cordova-2021" /> Thus the Met's collection, hitherto top-heavy with famous French artists, "became uniquely diverse," with "many little-known artists from France, as well as numerous artists from other European nations;" many of which are not otherwise represented in U.S. museums.<ref name="Cordova-2021" /> The plein-air collection forms a bridge "to what became the avant-garde," the Impressionists and their successors.<ref name="Cordova-2021" />

As noted by the museum, "a work by Renoir entered the Museum as early as 1907 (today the Museum has become one of the world's great repositories of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art)."<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of the Museum – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/general-information/2005/a-brief-history-of-the-museum |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.metmuseum.org|date=September 21, 2005 }}</ref> The museum terms its nineteenth-century French paintings "second only to the museums of Paris," with strengths in "Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and others."<ref name="Metmuseum.org-1" />

The foundation of the museum's great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection was laid by the Louisine (1855-1929) and Henry Osborne Havemeyer (1847-1907) collection. The most important portion of their immense collection came to the museum after the death of Louisine in 1929.<ref name="Mayor-1957" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Splendid_Legacy_The_Havemeyer_Collection |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Exhibition The Havemeyer Collection When America Discovered Impressionism... {{!}} Musée d'Orsay |url=http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/whats-on/exhibitions/havemeyer-collection-when-america-discovered-impressionism |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.musee-orsay.fr |language=en}}</ref> It was particularly strong in works by Courbet, Corot, Manet, Monet, and, above all, Degas. The other remarkable gift of this material came from Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, who, before they promised their collection to the Met in 1991, annually loaned it to the Met for half a year at a time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Postimpressionist Masterpieces |url=https://www3.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2001/annenberg-collection |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism – MetPublications – The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Annenberg_Collection_Masterpieces_of_Impressionism_and_Post_Impressionism |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=www.metmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> Walter Annenberg described his choice of gifting his collection to the Met as an example of "strength going to strength."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |date=June 2, 1991 |title=From Strength to Strength: A Collector's Gift to the Met |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/02/arts/art-view-from-strength-to-strength-a-collector-s-gift-to-the-met.html}}</ref> The two collections are highly complementary: "The Annenberg collection serves as a second, complementary core collection of blue chip Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Most importantly, it strengthened the Met's relatively sparse holdings of Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec, it added needed late works by Cézanne and Monet as well as a rare Seurat, and it brought a very impressive group of Van Goghs to a collection already rich in works by the Dutchman."<ref name="Cordova-2021" />

==== European sculpture and decorative arts ====
[[File:NYC - Metropolitan Museum - Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court.jpg|thumb|European sculpture court]]
The European Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection is one of the largest departments at the Met, holding in excess of 50,000 separate pieces from the 15th through the early 20th centuries.<ref name="Metmuseum.org-1">{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/european-sculpture-and-decorative-arts |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – European Sculpture and Decorative Arts |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530060925/https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/european-sculpture-and-decorative-arts |archive-date=May 30, 2012 }}</ref> Although the collection is particularly concentrated in [[Renaissance]] sculpture—much of which can be seen ''[[in situ]]'' surrounded by contemporary furnishings and decoration—it also contains comprehensive holdings of furniture, jewelry, glass and [[Ceramic art|ceramic pieces]], tapestries, textiles, and timepieces and [[mathematical instrument]]s. In addition to its outstanding collections of English and French furniture, visitors can enter dozens of completely furnished period rooms, transplanted in their entirety into the Met's galleries. The collection even includes an entire 16th-century [[patio]] from the Spanish castle of [[Vélez Blanco]], reconstructed in a two-story gallery, and the intarsia ''[[studiolo]]'' from the ducal palace at [[Gubbio]]. Sculptural highlights of the sprawling department include [[Bernini]]'s ''[[A Faun Teased by Children|Bacchanal]]'', a cast of [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin's]] ''[[The Burghers of Calais]]'', and several unique pieces by [[Jean-Antoine Houdon|Houdon]], including his ''Bust of [[Voltaire]]'' and his famous portrait of his daughter Sabine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sabine Houdon |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/200668 |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=www.metmuseum.org|date=1788 }}</ref>

==== American Wing ====
[[File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|thumb|''[[Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)|Washington Crossing the Delaware]]'' by [[Emanuel Leutze]]]]
The museum's collection of American art returned to view in new galleries on January 16th, 2012. The new installation provides visitors with the history of [[Visual art of the United States|American art]] from the 18th through the early 20th century. The new galleries encompasses {{convert|30000|sqft}} for the display of the museum's collection.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results?ft=American+Wing&x=7&y=8| title=The New American Wing| publisher=metmuseum.org| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030002607/https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results?ft=American+Wing&x=7&y=8| archive-date=October 30, 2013}}</ref> The curator in charge of the American Wing since September 2014 is Sylvia Yount.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vmfa.museum/pressroom/news/dr-sylvia-l-yount-named-post-metropolitan-museum-art/|title=Dr. Sylvia L. Yount Named to Post at The Met|date=June 11, 2014|language=en-US|access-date=December 24, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/the-american-wing/staff-list|title=Meet the Staff|website=www.metmuseum.org|access-date=December 24, 2018}}</ref>

In July 2018, ''Art of Native America'' opened in the American Wing.<ref name="The Metropolitan Museum of Art">{{Cite web |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/art-of-native-america-diker-collection |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> This marked the first appearance of [[Visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American art]] in the museum's vast American wing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-07 |title='Most of These Items Are Not Art': Native American Advocacy Group Protests Met Show |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/most-these-items-are-not-art-native-american-advocacy-group-protests-met-show |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=Frieze |language=en}}</ref> ''Art of Native America'' was accompanied by a statement from the institution. "The American Wing acknowledges the sovereign Native American and Indigenous communities dispossessed from the lands and waters of this region. We affirm our intentions for ongoing relationships with contemporary Native American and Indigenous artists and the original communities whose ancestral and aesthetic items we care for."<ref name="The Metropolitan Museum of Art" /> Contrary to this public statement, the museum came under immense scrutiny for the hazy provenance of the displayed items.<ref name="Sharp-2023">{{Cite web |last=Sharp |first=Kathleen |date=2023-04-25 |title=Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes? |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/the-met-museum-native-american-collections |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=ProPublica |language=en}}</ref> This was followed by the hiring of a new curator of Indigenous American art for the museum, [[Patricia Marroquin Norby|Dr. Patricia Marroquin Norby]], who is of [[Purépecha]] descent.<ref name="Bahr-2020">{{Cite web |last=Bahr |first=Sarah |date=September 9, 2020 |title=The Met Hires Its First Full-Time Native American Curator |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/arts/design/met-museum-native-american-curator.html |access-date=December 6, 2023 |website=New York Times}}</ref>

==== Greek and Roman art ====
[[File:Photograph of the New Roman Gallery at the Metropolitan—New York City.jpg|thumb|Greek and Roman gallery]]

The Met's collection of [[Ancient Greek art|Greek]] and [[Roman art]] contains more than 17,000 objects.<ref>{{cite web |author=Attributed to the Bastis Master |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/en/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/greek-and-roman-art |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Greek and Roman Art |publisher=Metmuseum.org |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704183223/https://www.metmuseum.org/en/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/greek-and-roman-art |archive-date=July 4, 2012 }}</ref> The Greek and Roman collection dates back to the founding of the museum—in fact, the museum's first accessioned object was a Roman [[sarcophagus]], still currently on display.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is the Metropolitan Museum of Art? |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-history-artwork.html |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=study.com}}</ref> Though the collection naturally concentrates on items from [[ancient Greece]] and the [[Roman Empire]], these historical regions represent a wide range of cultures and artistic styles, from classic Greek [[Black-figure pottery|black-figure]] and [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] vases to carved Roman [[tunic]] pins.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ancient Greek Pottery |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Pottery/ |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Limestone sarcophagus- the Amathus sarcophagus MET DT352.jpg|thumb|The [[Amathus sarcophagus]], from [[Amathus]], [[Cyprus]], arguably the single most important object in the Cesnola Collection]]
Highlights of the collection include the monumental [[Amathus sarcophagus]] and a magnificently detailed [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] chariot known as the "[[Monteleone chariot]]". The collection also contains many pieces from far earlier than the Greek or Roman empires—among the most remarkable are a collection of early [[Cyclades|Cycladic]] sculptures from the mid-third millennium BCE, many so abstract as to seem almost modern. The Greek and Roman galleries also contain several large classical wall paintings and reliefs from different periods, including an entire reconstructed bedroom from a noble [[villa]] in [[Boscoreale]], excavated after its entombment by the eruption of [[Mount Vesuvius|Vesuvius]] in {{CE|79|link=y}}. In 2007, the Met's Greek and Roman galleries were expanded to approximately {{convert|60000|sqft|m2|-3}}, allowing the majority of the collection to be on permanent display.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |title=Classical Treasures, Bathed in a New Light |date=April 20, 2007 |access-date=April 25, 2007 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/arts/design/20anci.html?ex=1334721600&en=d719d4e4c2744f72&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416045735/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/arts/design/20anci.html?ex=1334721600&en=d719d4e4c2744f72&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |archive-date=April 16, 2009 }}</ref>

==== Islamic art ====
[[File:Folio Blue Quran Met 2004.88.jpg|thumb|Leaf from the [[Blue Qur'an]] showing Chapter 30: 28–32]]
The Metropolitan Museum owns one of the world's largest collection of works of art of the Islamic world. The collection also includes artifacts and works of art of cultural and secular origin from the time period indicated by the rise of Islam predominantly from the [[Near East]] and in contrast to the [[Ancient Near East]]ern collections. The biggest number of [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]] from the "[[Shahnameh]]" list prepared under the reign of [[Shah]] [[Tahmasp I]], the most luxurious of all the existing [[Islamic manuscripts]], also belongs to this museum. Other rarities include the works of [[Sultan Mohammed|Sultan Muhammad]] and his associates from the [[Persian miniature|Tabriz school]] "The Sade Holiday", "Tahmiras kills divs", "[[Bijan and Manijeh]]", and many others.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/30/arts/design/20111030-met-islamic-wing.html|title=Interactive Guide to Islamic Art Galleries at Met|last=Kennedy|first=Randy|date=October 30, 2011|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=November 29, 2018}}</ref>

The Met's collection of [[Islamic art]] is not confined strictly to [[religious art]], though a significant number of the objects in the Islamic collection were originally created for religious use or as decorative elements in [[mosque]]s. Much of the 12,000 strong collection consists of secular items, including ceramics and [[textiles]], from Islamic cultures ranging from [[Spain]] to [[North Africa]] to [[Central Asia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/islamic-art |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Islamic Art |publisher=Metmuseum.org |date=November 1, 2011 |access-date=June 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609142925/https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/curatorial-departments/islamic-art |archive-date=June 9, 2012 }}</ref> The Islamic Art department's collection of miniature paintings from [[Iran]] and [[Mughal Empire|Mughal India]] are a highlight of the collection. [[Calligraphy]] both religious and secular is well represented in the Islamic Art department, from the official decrees of [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] to a number of [[Quran]] manuscripts reflecting different periods and styles of calligraphy. Modern calligraphic artists also used a word or phrase to convey a direct message, or they created compositions from the shapes of Arabic words. Others incorporated indecipherable cursive writing within the body of the work to evoke the illusion of writing.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/trmd/hd_trmd.htm| last=Mikdadi| first=Salwa| title=West Asia: Between Tradition and Modernity| publisher=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History; The Metropolitan Museum of Art| location=New York| year=2000| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111208105151/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/trmd/hd_trmd.htm| archive-date=December 8, 2011}}</ref>

Islamic Arts galleries had been undergoing refurbishment since 2001 and reopened on November 1, 2011, as the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Until that time, a narrow selection of items from the collection had been on temporary display throughout the museum. As with many other departments at the Met, the Islamic Art galleries contain many interior pieces, including the entire reconstructed ''Nur Al-Din Room'' from an early 18th-century house in [[Damascus]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Placing Islamic Art on a New Pedestal|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 22, 2011|access-date=June 9, 2023|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/arts/design/islamic-art-treasures-at-the-metropolitan-museum.html}}</ref>

In September 2022 the Met revealed that it had received a substantial gift from [[Qatar Museums]] on the occasion of its 10th anniversary of the opening of its Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia, which would benefit its Department of Islamic Art and some of the museum's other principal projects. As a token of its appreciation the name ''Qatar Gallery'' was adopted for the museum's Gallery of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] and [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] Periods.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Major Gift from Qatar Museums |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2022/gift-from-qatar |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-09-22 |title=Qatar Has Given the Metropolitan Museum of Art a 'Generous' Gift to Supercharge Its Islamic Art Department |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-qatar-gift-2180431 |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}</ref> This followed the announcement that the Met and Qatar Museums had entered into a partnership to foster their exchange with regards to exhibitions, activities, and scholarly cooperation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flynn |first=Erica |date=2022-09-28 |title=New partnership between Qatar Museums and New York City art museum strengthens the continued idea of scholarly cooperation |url=https://magzoid.com/new-partnership-between-qatar-museums-and-new-york-city-art-museum-strengthens-the-continued-idea-of-scholarly-cooperation/ |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=Magzoid |language=en-US}}</ref>