Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Met | opening |February 20th
1872
In New York, United States of America, The Metropolitan Museum – The Met – is one of the most visited museums in the planet with more than 2 millions visitors in 2016.
The permanent collection has around 2 millions of artworks, divided into 17 collections.
Permanent exhibition
The permanent exhibition consists of works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt, paintings, and sculptures from nearly all the European masters.
Is still composed by asian and african artworks and a remarkable collection of american art.
The Met provides temporary exhibitions, workshops and information about history of art and museology.
The Timeline of Art History provides information and articles about art history.
Access to Timeline of Art History
What´s a Museum?
According to the definition of the ICOM (International Council of Museums) ” A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment. “
One of the great current challenges is the revising of the museum definition.
Why is it important?
We have a huge variation in what a museum is!
If we think about the small local or regional museums all over the world we can see that most of the times the core is not in the collection.
Some of them don´t have a collection at all. They develop thematic activities involving local communities or have the core in a theme or a cause.
Example: interactive museum about the history of the Portuguese discoveries in Belmonte