The Met
About
What It Is
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, known as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum located at 1000 Fifth Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side, along the eastern edge of Central Park. [1] Founded in 1870 and opened in its current building in 1880, it is the largest art museum in the Americas and the third-largest by floor area in the world. [1] With over 5.7 million visitors in fiscal year 2025, it ranked as the most-visited museum in the United States and fifth-most visited art museum globally. [1] The main building spans approximately two million square feet across 11.5 acres. [1][2]
The permanent collection is organized across 17 curatorial departments and encompasses roughly 1.5 million works spanning 5,000 years of art history. [1][2] A second, smaller location called The Cloisters, situated at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, holds art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe. [1]
Activities & Experiences
Visitors can explore collections covering ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian art, European Old Master paintings, American art, and modern and contemporary works. [1] The museum also holds extensive holdings in African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art, as well as musical instruments, costumes, decorative arts, and antique weapons and armor. [1] Period rooms ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design are permanently installed throughout the galleries. [1][2]
Highlights include 2,500 European Old Master, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist paintings, the Temple of Dendur representing the greatest collection of Egyptian art and artifacts outside Cairo, and the Rooftop Garden offering views of Central Park and the Midtown skyline. [2] The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing houses more than 11,000 works from sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas in a dedicated 40,000-square-foot space. [1]
Practical Access
The museum is open Sunday through Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 5pm, and Friday and Saturday from 10am to 9pm; it is closed on Wednesdays. [2] Tickets can be purchased online through the Met's website or at the museum entrance; New York State residents receive pay-what-you-wish admission. [2] The recommended transit route is the 4, 5, or 6 subway line to 86th Street. [2]
Restrictions
No specific restrictions noted in the sources.
What Makes It Distinctive
The Met's scope is unmatched in the Western Hemisphere: a single institution housing 1.5 million works across 17 curatorial departments, covering virtually every major civilization and art form from prehistory to the present. [1][2] Few museums anywhere combine that encyclopedic breadth with individual landmarks of the caliber of the Temple of Dendur or 29 period rooms installed in their original architectural context. [1][2] Its scale, visitor numbers, and collection depth place it in a category shared by only a handful of institutions worldwide. [1]
Sources
- Open year-round
- Typical duration: 4h
Access & fees
- adults ticket
- children (12 and under)
- closed thanksgiving, december 25, january 1 and the first monday in may.
- new york residents & tri-state students: pay-what-you-wish.
- seniors (65+)
- students
- visitors with a disability - (includes free admission for one care partner)
Things to do
- explore musical instruments
- explore period rooms
- explore rockefeller wing
- view ancient near eastern art
- view european old masters
- view weapons and armor
Amenities
- six conservation departments
Features
- ~2 million sq ft building
- 1.5 million works
- founded 1870
- fourth-largest museum by area
- largest art museum, americas
- neue galerie merger planned
- the cloisters, second site
- third location planned 2028
Nearby
- central park
- central park, east edge
- the cloisters
- the cloisters, fort tryon park
Good to know
- 5.7 million annual visitors
- for a first visit, pick 3–5 sections, rather than attempting the entire museum. a very satisfying first-time combination would be: temple of dendur → egyptian art → greek & roman art → european paintings → american wing.
- founded 1870
- if the cantor roof garden is open during your visit, go up. it provides an unusual combination of art, central park and manhattan skyline views; the rooftop is seasonal.
- most-visited us museum
- second location planned 2028