New York Holidays Allow You to Explore The Met

by Amanda Sutcliffe Travel Deals

New York is one of the modern world's greatest cities visited by plenty of tourists every year. It has many attractions that delight its visitors and one of them is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as 'The Met'. This museum, founded in the year 1870, is visited by more than 7 million individuals every year. Seventeen separate departments curate its permanent collection with the help of specialised staff comprising scholars, curators, Department of Scientific Research, and six dedicated conservation departments.

Upon visiting this museum during your New York holidays, you'll be able to explore its geographically designated collections. The Met began collecting arts and artefacts from the Near East in the late 19th century. The collection of art from the Near Eastern world has now grown to over 7,000 pieces, which represent the region's history starting from the Neolithic Age to the end of Late Antiquity. While browsing through this extensive collection, you'll come across some impressive works from the Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and other ancient cultures. Major highlights of this collection are the sculptures from the Assyrian kingdom.

While exploring the collections of this museum during your cheap New York holidays, you'll also be able to witness some marvellous collections from various parts of Africa, Americas, and Oceania. The Peruvian antiques were first acquired by The Met in the year 1882, but the works from Oceania, Africa, and the Americas were not collected until 1969. Towards the late 20th century, Nelson A. Rockefeller, an American businessman and philanthropist, donated over 3,000 pieces of his collection to this museum. This contributed immensely to the growth of The Met's collection. In recent times, the museum's collection of pieces from the regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands has grown to over 11,000 pieces.

You can also explore an excellent collection of Asian artefacts during your cheap New York holidays in The Met. The museum houses over 35,000 pieces of Asian art today. They have made it to The Met owing to the support of several philanthropists who gifted them to the museum at the time of its founding. An entire section is dedicated to the collection of artefacts from Asia, which spans 4,000 years. Almost every civilisation of the Asian region is represented in the Asian department. The pieces displayed in this section include paintings, sculpture, metal works, and prints. Most notable collections are the Indian sculptures, Chinese paintings, and arts from Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Don't miss the Egyptian arts while exploring The Met. A massive section of 40 Egyptian galleries is dedicated to the artworks from Egypt. They mostly came from private collections and archaeological excavations between the years 1906 and 1941. Upon browsing through the collection, you can witness over 26,000 separate pieces of art from Egypt. They span a period from the Palaeolithic era to the Ptolemaic era. Among them are the 13 wooden models that were discovered in a tomb located in the western part of Thebes during the year 1920.

You’ll get to know more about the Berber culture and history during your Marrakech holidays.