The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City · founded 1870
A group of New Yorkers — businessmen, financiers, artists and thinkers — founded The Met in 1870 to bring art and art education to the American people, before it had a single object or a building. It opened on Fifth Avenue in 1880 and has grown into the largest art museum in the Americas, holding work across five thousand years. In 2017 it released its public-domain images under Creative Commons Zero, free for anyone to use.
- Works in the Met collection
- 1.5 million+Works in the Met collection
- Founded
- 1870Founded
- Admission
- TicketedAdmission
- Daily opening hours
- 10–5Daily opening hours
What to see
The Met is too large to see in a day, so most first visits pick a wing and stay in it. These are the works and rooms people cross the city for.
The Temple of Dendur
An Egyptian temple of about 15 BC, given by Egypt in 1965 and rebuilt inside a glass hall facing Central Park.
At the museum · Photo by TheCatalyst31, CC BY-SA 4.0
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Leutze painted it in Düsseldorf in 1851; it fills a wall of the American Wing.
At the museum · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The European paintings galleries
Five Vermeers, more than any museum outside the Netherlands, among the Dutch rooms.
At the museum · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Costume Institute
Dress from the fifteenth century on, shown in changing exhibitions.
On view at the museum
The Astor Court
A Ming-style scholar’s garden, built in New York by craftsmen from Suzhou.
At the museum · Photo by Alawa, CC BY-SA 3.0
The roof garden
A commissioned installation each summer, over the park.
At the museum · Photo by Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0
Plan your visit
Hours
Sunday to Tuesday and Thursday 10:00–17:00, Friday and Saturday until 21:00, closed Wednesday. Confirm on metmuseum.org before you travel.
Getting there
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. Subway: 4, 5, 6 to 86th Street.
On their own site
The Open Access collection is at metmuseum.org/art/collection, filtered by public domain.
Put art like this on your wall
Momentable streams public-domain art from museums around the world to your TV, phone, or tablet. Free to start.