Latest news with #MaxHollein
Time Out
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A record number of museumgoers attended The Met this spring
'If you build it, they will come' doesn't just apply to baseball ghosts. As it turns out, it also applies to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which just discovered that it hosted over 5.7 million visitors between The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters in the 2025 fiscal year. (That would be financial talk for the 12-month period that ended on June 30, 2025.) Part of that growth came late in the tracking period, with a big ol' day party celebrating the new The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing on Saturday, May 31, which was the Met's highest single-day attendance record since 2017. How many people could possibly swing through The Met in a single day? Turns out, 33,700. That's a lot of stickers. Exhibitions still on view from this period are Sargent and Paris (427,000 visitors and counting), which closes August 3, and Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (through October 26), which has had 291,000 guests. Previous exhibitions were Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature (300,000 visitors), Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 (298,000 visitors), and the final weeks of The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism (464,000 visitors) and Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (401,000 visitors). 'We are thrilled by the continued growth of our audiences, particularly across New York City and the surrounding area, with visitors showing incredible enthusiasm for our ambitious programming,' Max Hollein, The Met's Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, said in a statement. 'Whether through our thought-provoking exhibitions, inventive educational initiatives, or wide-ranging digital offerings, The Met provides an array of ways to engage with our collection spanning 5,000 years of art from across time and around the world.' Overall, The Met saw a 5-percent growth in attendance over fiscal year 2024; 62-percent of the visitors were locals from the tri-state area. Upcoming exhibits at The Met include The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am (September 12–June 9, 2026), Man Ray: When Objects Dream (September 14–February 1, 2026), Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson (September 20–February 8, 2026), Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages (October 17–March 29, 2026), and Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck (December 5–April 5, 2026).
New York Times
31-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
A Global Community Joins ‘the Conversation' at the Met's Rockefeller Wing
Round tables covered in white cloths surrounded the Temple of Dendur. Women wore fascinators, Nigerian geles and Hawaiian lei po'o, while men wore Yoruba agbadas, Hawaiian kāʻei and the occasional tuxedo, all in sartorial attempts to honor the lineage that brought them to the event. Curators, artists and archaeologists gathered for dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to celebrate the culmination of four years of work — and the legacy of a historied American family — on Friday night. They were toasting the reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and its collection of work from Africa, the ancient Americas and Oceania. Over lobster, foie gras, wine and champagne, friends of the Met and members of the Rockefeller family mingled among the 1,726 objects in the new gallery, which cost $70 million to complete and has 40,000 square feet dedicated to the arts of those regions. 'It is a coming together of a very global community,' said Max Hollein, the chief executive and director of the Met. 'And in this time, it's so much about respecting cultural heritage in many different ways but also making sure that there's a deep understanding, a deeper appreciation.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Time Out
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
First look: This historic wing of The Met just got a major update
After a four-year renovation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reopened its galleries dedicated to the arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania. These historic galleries, housed within the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, are packed with 1,800 artworks spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures. To celebrate the opening, the Upper East Side museum is hosting a daylong festival on Saturday, May 31 with performances, live music, art making and more. It's free with museum admission—which is always pay-what-you-wish for New Yorkers. Max Hollein, The Met's CEO, described the 40,000-square-foot Rockefeller Wing's reopening as 'much more than a renovation.' Instead, he said at a grand opening event, 'it's a re-envisioning of one of the museum's most important spaces.' Inside the galleries, you'll find several objects on view for the first time, including new acquisitions of contemporary African works and new commissions by Indigenous artists for the Oceania galleries. Also don't miss a gallery dedicated to light-sensitive ancient Andean textiles, which is the first of its kind in the United States. It's a re-envisioning of one of the museum's most important spaces. New features, such as documentary films, audio commentary, artist bios and expanded wall text, help to provide contemporary perspectives and offer deeper engagement with the work. As for the design, expect brighter galleries with a custom-designed sloped glass wall adjacent to Central Park and a dramatic entryway where curved ceilings arch above carved wooden ancestor poles made by artists in West Papua. Inside the sprawling wing, you'll find a vast exploration of cultures. For example, you can learn about manifestations of faith in the western Sahel's communities, then discover funerary carvings from New Ireland. See a golden staff from Ghanian royalty dating back to the 1930s, as well as a collection of ornate ear flares dating back to to the 1300–1400s in Peru, to name a few. To update the galleries, the museum team worked with collaborators across the globe. Signage in the galleries points out the provenance (or chain of custody) of the pieces. All of the works at The Met were acquired from private individuals who obtained the pieces in the region or through the intentional art market. Or the museum purchased the pieces from commercial galleries or public auctions. The new space was designed by WHY Architecture in collaboration with Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects LLP and with The Met's Design Department. Each gallery's look is meant to pay homage to the architectural vernaculars of each featured region. The Rockefeller Wing first opened in 1982, beginning as the personal collection of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. It helped to expand the worldviews of the art inside The Met's walls. 'You will see human ingenuity and cultural ingenuity,' Hollein said. 'It's a celebration of the richness of culture, of global artistic expression and how everything is connected.' Highlights from each gallery Arts of Africa Explore The Met's collection of sub-Saharan African art through 500 works highlighting major artistic movements and living traditions from across the subcontinent. The new galleries present original creations spanning from the Middle Ages to the present, including a 12th-century fired clay figure shaped in Mali's Inner Niger Delta and the fiber creation Bleu no. 1 by acclaimed innovator Abdoulaye Konaté. A quarter of the works are on display at The Met for the first time. Arts of the Ancient Americas These galleries feature 700 works exploring the artistic legacy of Indigenous artists from across North, Central and South America and the Caribbean prior to 1600. The new galleries include monumental stone sculptures and exquisite metalwork and also include refined ceramic vessels; shimmering regalia of gold, shell, and semiprecious stone; and delicate sculptures of wood. Don't miss the new gallery devoted to ancient American textiles and featherwork, which frames a 3,000-year history of achievements in the fiber arts. Arts of Oceania Discover more than 500 years of art from this expansive region, newly framed by Indigenous perspectives. The galleries house 650 works, drawn from over 140 distinct cultures in a region of astonishing diversity. These include monumental artworks from the large island of New Guinea and the coastal archipelagos that stretch beyond its shores to the north, central, and eastern Pacific, as well as the two neighboring regions of Australia and Island Southeast Asia, whose Indigenous communities all share a common ancestry. New acquisitions broaden the collection to include the work of women, especially fiber work by senior female artists from Australia and New Guinea.
Al Etihad
20-05-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art returns sculptures to the Republic of Iraq
20 May 2025 09:44 ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Monday that it is returning three ancient works of art to the Republic of Iraq: a Sumerian vessel made of gypsum alabaster, and two Babylonian ceramic sculptures—a head of a male and a head of a female. The works range in date from the third to second millennium repatriation follows the launch of The Met's Cultural Property Initiative, which includes undertaking a focused review of works in the collection. The Met earlier initiated the repatriation of a third-millennium BCE Sumerian sculpture to the Republic of Iraq in 2024, after provenance research by Met scholars established that the work rightfully belongs to Iraq."The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and the shared stewardship of the world's cultural heritage and has made significant investments in accelerating the proactive research of our collection," said Max Hollein, The Met's Director and CEO."The Museum is grateful for our ongoing conversations with Iraq regarding future collaborative endeavors, and we look forward to working together to advance our shared dedication to fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iraqi art and culture," he Vessel supported by two rams (ca. 2600–2500 BCE) and the Head of a female (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) were gifted to the Met Museum in 1989 by the Norbert Schimmel Trust; the Head of a male (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) was purchased by the Museum in Head of a male, and the Vessel supported by two rams, were at one point sold by disgraced London dealer Robin Symes. Both the Head of a male, and Head of a female sculptures, are thought to be from Isin, an archaeological site in Iraq. While the Vessel supported by two rams is not known to be associated with a particular site in Iraq, it appeared on the Baghdad art market, was purchased by Swiss dealer Nicolas Koutoulakis by 1956 and later acquired by Cecile de the Museum's cooperation with the Manhattan DA's office, and as a result of its investigation into Robin Symes, the museum recently received new information that made it clear that the works should be repatriated, resulting in a constructive resolution. Cultural Property InitiativeIn spring 2023, The Met announced a suite of initiatives related to cultural property and collecting practices that include undertaking a focused review of works in the collection; hiring additional provenance researchers to join the many researchers and curators already doing this work at the Museum; further engaging staff and trustees; and using The Met's platform to support and contribute to public discourse on this topic. The Met engages with countries around the globe as part of its commitment to the shared stewardship of the world's cultural heritage and has established a number of key international this year, following collaborative research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Hellenic Republic of Greece announced the return of a 7th century BCE Bronze Head of a Griffin to Greece, which will be loaned back to The Met for an exhibition in recent agreements include the transfer of ownership of two stone sculptures to the Republic of Yemen, which resulted in a historic custodial agreement stating that The Met will care for and display the stone sculptures until Yemen wishes to have them returned. Following that agreement, 14 ancient sculptures that were voluntarily repatriated to the Republic of Yemen from the Hague family collection located in New Zealand were loaned to The Met by the Republic of Yemen, who requested that the objects be held at the Museum, where they will be studied and catalogued, until Yemen requests their return. As part of a commitment to transparency, The Met has launched object webpages for all restituted works of art, specifying that the object has been returned and to what country. The Museum has also embraced a New York State law passed in August 2022 that requires museums to publicly identify any artworks in their collection that changed hands in Europe during the Nazi era (1933–1945) due to involuntary means, with more than 50 updated object labels now installed.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Met Gala 2025: A$AP Rocky, Zendaya, and Cardi B Hit the Red Carpet
The 2025 Met Gala is in full swing, with celebrities from every discipline descending on the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a night of high fashion. This year, attendees will celebrate the theme 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,' which was inspired by the 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity by Monica Miller, who curated the accompanying Costume Institute exhibit. The 2025 edition has already raised the most money in its 77-year history, bringing in $31 million to the museum. '[It's] an environment of celebration, of support, and of meaning,' Max Hollein, the director and chief executive of the Met, told The New York Times. More from Rolling Stone Sultry Savings: Skims' Bi-Annual Sale Is Offering Deals on Pop Icon Charli XCX And Sabrina Carpenter-Approved Basics Billie Eilish Says Met Gala Images of Her Are Fake: 'That's AI' No, Megan Thee Stallion Was Not Banned From the Met Gala for Using Her Phone This year's event is co-hosted by Anna Wintour, alongside actor Colman Domingo, musicians A$AP Rocky and Pharrell Williams, and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Basketball icon LeBron James serves as the charity event's honorary chair. Tap through our gallery to see some of the standout looks from this year's red carpet. Best of Rolling Stone Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best The United States of Weed Gaming Levels Up
