Masterpieces in Color at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by Bryan Holme (Editor) Harry B. Wehle (Introduction) Hardcover Publisher: American Studio Books; (1945) 9 1/2 x 12.2 inches The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 to bring art and art education to the American people. The museum's permanent collection consists of 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 maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, and accessories, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries. The Fifth Avenue building opened on February 20, 1872, at 681 Fifth Avenue. ---------------------------- Bryan Holme (1913-1990) was an American author and publisher who founded Studio Books, a subsidiary of Viking Press. He also published The Studio, a London-based art magazine. In August 1990, he died at the age of 78 due to kidney failure.