Metropolitan Museum of Art

41 minutes to JFK International Airport

The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses an immense collection of art and artifacts that goes back more than six thousand years. A gift from philanthropists Iris and B. Gerald Cantor of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald, it was created in 1870 in order to bring art and art education to the American people. The Museum opened on February 1872 at 681 5th Avenue.

Presently, “The Met” is the largest art museum in the country and one of the most visited art museums anywhere. With more than two million works split up among seventeen curatorial departments, it has a permanent collection. The main building is one of the world’s largest art galleries along Manhattan’s Museum Mile. There is a smaller second location in Upper Manhattan which keeps a comprehensive collection of art from Medieval Europe. The Met Breuer museum was opened in 2016 at Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, thus increasing the museum’s art program.

Art from the classical ruins and ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from European masters, and a comprehensive collection of American and modern art adds to the collection.  Several significant interiors are installed in its galleries from first-century Rome through modern American design.

The Iris and Gerald Cantor Roof Garden is located on the roof of the museum and its cafe and bar is a popular hangout during mild-weather months, especially on weekends. The roof garden features the most spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline from an angle high above Central Park. Some critics have complained that the views takes away from the art on exhibition.

Metropolitan Art Museum is 17 minutes to Bentley Hotel New York.