Climb the wide steps from Fifth Avenue into the Great Hall, and choose a direction: Egyptian temples, Greek marbles, European masterpieces, armour, or a whole room from another century.

The museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met, was founded in 1870. By floor area it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas, and with 5,727,258 visitors in fiscal year 2025 it was the most visited museum in the United States. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue stands on Museum Mile at the eastern edge of Central Park; the first part was built in 1880. The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park holds its medieval European collection.

The collection

The collection spans the ancient Near East and Egypt, classical antiquity and the contemporary world, with European Old Masters, American and modern art, costumes, decorative arts, and weapons and armour from around the world, in 17 curatorial departments. The Temple of Dendur, commissioned around 23 BCE under Emperor Augustus in Nubia, was given by Egypt to the United States in 1965 and has been shown at the Met since 1978.

Visiting

Adults pay $30, seniors $22 and students $17; children 12 and under are free. New York State residents and students from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut pay what they wish. The museum is open Sunday to Thursday 10 am to 5 pm and Friday and Saturday until 9 pm, and closed on Wednesdays.

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  Temple of Dendur Ancient Egyptian temple.
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  Arms and Armor From around the world.
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  European paintings Old Masters.
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  The Cloisters Medieval art uptown.