Metropolitan Museum of Art: free audio guide
The story of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as the Votura app tells it on location. Read it here, or hear it on the spot with turn-by-turn walking directions.
Before you go
- Address
- 1000 5th Ave (btwn E 80th & E 84th St), New York, NY 10028
- Opening hours
- Mon–Tue, Thu, Sun: 10:00 AM–5:00 PM; Fri–Sat: 10:00 AM–9:00 PM
The story
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is one of the great encyclopedic museums of the world, founded in 1870 and opened to the public in 1872 with a mission to bring art and art education to the city. Its main home on Fifth Avenue rises beside Central Park on the edge of Museum Mile, and the museum’s collection now exceeds 1.5 million works spanning about 5,000 years of human creativity. The institution grows from the efforts of American patrons, scholars, and business leaders who want New York to stand alongside the major cultural capitals of Europe. From the start, the Met is built not as a single-period museum but as a vast survey of global civilization, with paintings, sculpture, armor, textiles, photographs, musical instruments, and decorative arts all given equal importance.
The building you see today is the result of many campaigns and expansions rather than one single construction project. The original museum structure is designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould and opens in 1880, then Richard Morris Hunt creates the grand Fifth Avenue façade beginning in 1894, giving the museum its monumental Beaux-Arts presence. Later additions by McKim, Mead & White and subsequent architects continue to transform the complex, and the museum eventually stretches across a sprawling footprint with more than 2 million square feet of space. The famous Great Hall and grand staircase make the entrance feel ceremonial, while the Fifth Avenue steps become one of New York’s best-known urban gathering points. The Met also operates the Met Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park, dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, which opens in 1938.
Inside, the scale is almost overwhelming because the museum is organized into dozens of departments, from Ancient Near Eastern art and Egyptian art to European paintings, Greek and Roman art, Islamic art, Arms and Armor, Asian art, and the Costume Institute. The Egyptian collection is among the finest outside Egypt and includes the Temple of Dendur, a sandstone temple gifted to the United States in 1965 and installed at the Met in 1978 in a dramatic gallery designed by architect Kevin Roche. The museum’s holdings also include masterpieces such as Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, Johannes Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, and Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat. One of its signature attractions is the Egyptian Temple of Dendur gallery, where a real ancient monument is framed by a modern glass wall and reflected light from Central Park.
The Met becomes famous not only for its collection but also for how it stages the history of art as a living, expanding conversation. The Costume Institute’s annual exhibition tradition turns the museum into a global fashion focal point, and the Met Gala, its benefit held each year, becomes one of New York’s most closely watched cultural events. In 2023, the museum reports record-scale visitation in the wake of renewed tourism, underscoring its role as both a scholarly institution and a city landmark. For many visitors, the most striking fact is that the Met is not one museum but many museums under one roof, with galleries that can take days to explore thoroughly. Every turn reveals a different civilization, dynasty, or artistic revolution, and the museum’s sheer geographic and chronological range is what makes it unforgettable.
What makes the Metropolitan Museum of Art so compelling is its combination of ambition, scholarship, and public access. It is a place where a 14th-century cathedral sculpture, a 17th-century Dutch masterpiece, a 19th-century American landscape, and a 20th-century fashion piece can all sit within a few rooms of one another. The museum’s mission, collection size, and architectural grandeur give it a status that is both civic and international, and its location on Fifth Avenue places it at the heart of New York’s cultural life. For tourists, it is not just a stop on a sightseeing list but a full-scale encounter with world history, presented with the authority and energy of one of the largest and most famous art museums in the United States.
Written for the Votura audio tour and read aloud in the app. Opening hours change, so check with the venue before you go.
Self-guided tours that stop at Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Великолепный Нью-Йорк: 3-дневный автотур по главным достопримечательностям
- Нью-Йорк за 3 дня: Автомобильное путешествие по легендарным местам
- Нью-Йорк за 3 дня: легенды и знаковые места на колесах
- Нью-Йорк за 3 дня: все главные достопримечательности на машине
- Великолепие Нью-Йорка: 3-дневное автопутешествие по легендарным местам
- Великолепный автомобильный тур по Нью-Йорку за 3 дня
More audio tours in New York →
Hear it on the spot
Votura plays this guide when you reach Metropolitan Museum of Art, then walks you to the next stop. Works offline.