The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art stands on the eastern edge of Central Park along Fifth Avenue — the largest and most encyclopedic art museum in the Americas, welcoming more than 5.7 million visitors in fiscal year 2025, more than any other museum in the United States. Founded in 1870 by a coalition of philanthropists, artists, and businessmen who wanted a national institution to inspire and educate the public, it now holds collections ranging from the ancient Near East and ancient Egypt through the classical Greco-Roman world to contemporary art, organized across seventeen curatorial departments. Rather than racing through the grand halls, this labyrinthine museum rewards the visitor who turns down a side corridor — the ones most people walk past without stopping.
United States · 24 The overlooked corners inside
The overlooked corners inside
Thomas J. Watson Library
Most visitors entering the Met head straight for the galleries; few notice this research library just off the first floor. The Thomas J. Watson Library is the Met's primary research library, with holdings spanning decorative arts, architecture, and the broader sweep of art history — ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, Asia, and Islamic art among them. It is named for Thomas J. Watson, the former IBM chairman and chief executive, who funded the building that bears his name and endowed an acquisitions fund. Most visitors don't realize you can simply walk in without a reservation.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Generist Map
Generist Map is an AI art installation created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with Microsoft and MIT, unveiled at the Met in February 2019. At its heart is a generative adversarial network (GAN): a "generator" produces new art images from a category prompt, while a "discriminator" repeatedly challenges them against real works from the Met's open-access collection. The two networks train in competition until the generator can make images the discriminator can no longer tell apart from the real thing. The project began at a two-day hackathon held at a Microsoft research center in December 2018, and was then built over the course of a month by five MIT interns. Its GitHub repository was archived in June 2026.
Sources: github.com · microsoft.com · wikidata.org
Fifth Avenue Building (Main Building)
The imposing building before you is the Met's main home in New York — 1000 Fifth Avenue, along Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Its earliest appearance was quite different: after the Met secured the land inside Central Park from the city in 1871, American architects Calvert Vaux and his collaborator Jacob Wrey Mould designed a red-brick building. But Vaux's ambitious design found few admirers. Critics mocked it as a "mausoleum," its High Victorian Gothic style was considered dated even before completion, and the Met's own director called the project "a mistake."
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
European Paintings
These galleries hold the European Paintings department's collection — more than 2,600 works spanning the thirteenth century to the early twentieth, displayed across the second-floor Old Master galleries (rehung in 2023), the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century galleries, and the first-floor Robert Lehman Collection and Jack and Belle Linsky Collection. The collection's foundation was laid in 1871 when the Met purchased 174 paintings from European dealers; roughly two-thirds were later deaccessioned, but strong works by Jordaens, Van Dyck, Poussin, the Tiepolos, and Guardi survived. The real depth came from several critical bequests: Henry Gordon Marquand's three major gifts between 1889 and 1891 established the department's core, and Benjamin Altman's 1913 bequest first put the collection on the international map.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Gilman Paper Company Collection
The Gilman Paper Company Collection is a holding of original photographic prints and negatives donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was assembled over roughly two decades — approximately 1977 to 1997 — by Howard Gilman (1924–1998), chairman of the Gilman Paper Company. Before the donation, the collection already included a group of 1890s portraits of Virginia, Countess di Castiglione, photographed by Pierre-Louis Pierson of Mayer and Pierson, the official court photographers of Napoleon III's Second Empire, at the countess's own commission. The collection's range extends from daguerreotype portraits all the way to Robert Frank and Diane Arbus images from the 1960s.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Afrofuturism Youth Council
The Afrofuturism Youth Council is a seven-member youth program co-founded by the Metropoli… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: wikidata.org · en.wikipedia.org · gothamist.com
Sackler Wing
Built in 1978 and designed by architect Kevin Roche, this wing stands on the north side of… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Temple of Dendur
Step into this soaring gallery and the sandstone temple appears before you — partly surrou… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Ancient Near Eastern Art
The Met's Ancient Near Eastern Art department began in the late nineteenth century with a… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Asian Art
The Met's Asian Art department holds more than 35,000 works — the largest collection of As… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Egyptian Art
The Met's Egyptian Art department holds more than 26,000 works spanning the Paleolithic pe… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
The European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department is one of the largest at the Met, wi… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
American Wing
The Met's American Wing reopened with new galleries in January 2012, presenting American a… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Greek and Roman Art
The Met's Greek and Roman Art department holds more than 17,000 works and traces its origi… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Islamic Art
The Met's Islamic Art department holds one of the largest Islamic art collections in the w… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Arms and Armor
The Arms and Armor department is one of the most popular in the museum, with around 14,000… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Costume Institute
The Costume Institute traces its origins to the Museum of Costume Art, founded by Irene Le… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Drawings and Prints
The Drawings and Prints department focuses on North American works and post-medieval Weste… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Robert Lehman Collection
After Robert Lehman's death in 1969, his foundation donated the 2,600 artworks he and his… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Medieval Art and The Cloisters
The Met's Medieval Art department holds more than 10,000 works in its permanent collection… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Medieval Galleries (Main Building)
The medieval galleries on the main building's first floor are the heart of the Met's medie… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The Cloisters and Its Gardens
The Cloisters stands in Fort Tryon Park at the northern tip of Manhattan — opened in 1938… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Modern and Contemporary Art
The Met's Modern and Contemporary Art department holds around 13,000 works — primarily by… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Musical Instruments
The Met's collection of musical instruments numbers around 5,000 objects from around the w… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
FAQ
What overlooked corners are worth seeing inside The Metropolitan Museum of Art?
Thomas J. Watson Library, Generist Map, Fifth Avenue Building (Main Building) and more — 24 spots in all, each with sources and a guide in your language to read or listen to on the spot.
Is the The Metropolitan Museum of Art guide free?
The first 5 spots are free to read; the other 19 unlock with a one-time purchase (not a subscription).