A World of Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
What makes a masterpiece? In this visually stunning high definition production, A World of Art, the magnificence of America's premier art museum lights up the screen.
One of the architectural glories of New York, the Met stretches 1000 feet along Fifth Avenue. Inside is a dazzling three dimensional encyclopedia of world art, radiating 5,000 years of artistic history.
Founded in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was built on the shoulders of capitalism: J.P. Morgan, Havemeyer, Lehman, Rockefeller, and Annenberg are just a few of the names behind the Met's collections.
Met is the largest art museum in the United States with among the most significant art collections. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is by area one of the world's largest art galleries.
Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art.
The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries.
Stolen artifacts from around the world.
this is the first of the museum series that I see and it was great! I would like to have a bit more information on the building itself though. Very nice and diverse art collection, I especially like the fact that one can observe all major civilisations and get a wholly idea of the world and how it's evolved artistically! I am certainly visiting the MET art museum!!
on the subject of stolen art, i used to work with a cat whose gramps was a former nazi who ran to Chile with a couple of very valuable paintings. Carlito inherited them, and being the not so bright type, offered them on the legit market. he got a "bite" from a collector from the UK, who showed a huge interest in purchasing both. he would, however, require Carlito and the paintings to come to England, so that his expert could verify authenticity. to sweeten the deal, he even offered to pay traveling expenses. of course, Carlito jumped at the chance. paintings carefully crated, plane tickets in hand, Carlito hopped a plane to London. on arrival, the paintings were put on a customs hold. after a few hours, Carlito was informed the hold was lifted, and to come pick up his artwork. of course, what he found was a pair of amateurish copies, carefully boxed in the finest Brit cardboard money can buy, lol. the expert, after an incredibly brief peek, informed him that they were fakes. the "buyer" was at least kind enough to still provide his return ticket home. the originals were returned to the the heirs of whatever poor soul the nazis had "liberated" them from. chalk one up for the "good guys", rofl. Carlito, to his credit, had enough of a sense of humor to laugh about it whenever he told the tale.
Time well spent. Thanks for this one.
I really enjoyed that, thank you.
it would be interesting to know just how much art JP Morgan robed from the rest of the world.
It is a moot question today. He cannot be called to reckon for those misdeeds, if any. If he did steal, he has certainly given back. The art is there, in New York, for anyone to see. An incredible collection. Sometimes people have no appreciation for what sits in their own back yard. An outsider comes along, is astonished by the beauty, goes to great expense to restore and exhibit a piece of art, and suddenly the locals want the item that they could care less about a few short years ago.
I watched this to appreciate the extraordinary and remember my visit there. There are times that personal agendas get in the way of enjoying the beauty of life.
My Grandfather illegally sold a little treasure out of Ireland some years ago, something that had been in the family for a few hundred years. He let it go for about £250 pounds, (a fortune at the time) and caused a great deal of trouble. The authorities were unable to step in and save it as they were not allowed to offer its true value. He sold it to a decidedly iffy fellow who had been involved in procuring art treasures for the Nazis. On the museum website (Boston) it is listed as being sold directly to them by my Great Grandfather for almost £23k. I have no problems with it being sold, needs must when the devil drives. I am rather annoyed that it was all so cloak and dagger and that the lie persists when the truth is known. Mostly I am sad that it was sold out of the country, It aught to go home to Limerick. I guess the museums position is that to send it home they would be admitting wrong doing. If they have in the past seen fit to deal with known Nazi art thieves when it suited, surely the provenance of every treasure is worth scrutiny. There is also the fact that when last valued for insurance they tagged it at £2.1 million. Not to be sniffed at :) On the other hand its safe where it is and there for all to see and I do love museums. We go to the V&A most summers, where else would you get to see these things? And for free! I love that :)
(cue Bond music)
Surely enough information here for a good spy or detective to get to the bottom of the matter, I guess? :)
In fact... I'm pretty sure I have the mystery solved already! (lol)
Give me a clue? Or do I have to dangle you over a pool of sharks? :)
Mum's the word! Just don't let go my ankle, please? :)
( but, oh, I would SO love to, lolol. )
Good, I'll tell jaws to stand down! :)
Great story. I understand your feelings of loss but I applaud that you can see the positive side of the situation also. To be soaked in bitterness about things out of your control is a sad way to live a life. Good on you for not allowing this to happen to you.
No loss felt, wasn't mine to begin with and really what would I do with it? Keep it in my knicker draw and worry about it? Too much effort! The value of art is not its cost, it's in beauty and meaning or even its history :)
@dewflirt:
Am glad to see you can take such things in stride, but what can you have done? nothing! Me I probably would have gone ape $h1te, but that is just me, lol.
Have you searched for any more treasurers? for the museums of course, lol
Everything was sold to pay death duties, no more treasures. He didn't much care for anything other than good whiskey and fine horses! Wonderful old man, if a little eccentric :)
I want to watch this too ,but I do not know how to watch it ?it is not working
i have no problems about artifacts in museums, after all it for all to see. i had in mind a private collection (just dont tell me they do not have em, excavating in Egipt...), locked away. and anyways green peaces of paper for artifacts of ancient times is a plane robery.
Sometimes I would simply like to enjoy a presentation without some type of complaint or political commentary. Art for art's sake. To know that beauty exists and I don't always have to be centred on the ills of the world. I would have like to have seen the first comment to have been an appreciation of the nobler endeavours of humanity and not a cynical remark about robber barons. It took me from an exquisite place and plopped me back in the muddy trenches.
This isn't a private collection. It was placed in a public forum for all to see at great expense. It allows the average person to appreciate the great cultural history of people from around the world and forget the artificial nationalistic boundaries that divides us. Embrace that. J. P. Morgan has been dead for one hundred years. Whatever he has done is done and he can't undo it. At least he gave the art to an institution who will share it with all of us, the unwashed masses.
Sorry if I seem a little cranky. I'm still trying to crawl back out of the muddy trenches.
I think you mean 'for all who have enough time and money to fly to New York' to see them. How many Egyptians can afford to fly to NYC to see all the s*it that should be in their own back yards? I think we should give it back.