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Lonely Planet - New York City
When you're exploring New York, check out these highlights, brought to you courtesy of our friends at Lonely Planet Publications
1. Soak up the views from the rooftop garden
With nearly three million pieces in its collection, five million visitors a year and an annual budget of $120 million, the Met is New York's biggest, richest and most celebrated cultural institution. It could take a lifetime to appreciate all that is has to offer. Its $155 million renovation, started in 2004 and due for completion in 2007, has added a new Roman Court and brought loads of hidden antiquities (including an Etruscan chariot) out of storage. They've renovated galleries dedicated to Roman and modern art and pumped up the number of Hellenistic works on display to 7500.
You'll want plenty of time to explore this behemoth; the European galleries above the marble staircase at the Fifth Ave entrance could easily consume a day, as could the larger-than-ever Greek and Roman galleries, and the newly-expanded Egyptian gallery, with its perfectly preserved mummies and entire Temple of Dendur, saved from submersion in the waters of the Aswan Dam.
Behind the temple is the American wing, with an incongruous combination of Tiffany glass, baseball cards and the facade of a US Bank. The dark, lovely medieval galleries appear next, filled with iconic artifacts, Byzantine enamels and religious jewelry. Then comes the calm oasis of the Lehman Wing, filled with Renaissance paintings by Rembrandt, Memling and El Greco. There are also Africa, Oceania and the Americas galleries, an Asian art gallery and many special art collections.
2. Stroll through the sculpture garden
The MoMA's 1939 facade got an all-over spiffing up in 2004, courtesy of Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, and is now an uptown gem, gleaming and transcendent.
The best way to explore this multilevel building is to start at the old entrance, with a strange, cantilevered canopy that looks like the top of an old baby-grand piano. It's a few doors down from the new entrance on West 53rd St where tickets are sold. Take the elevator to the 6th floor, home to special exhibits. As you look out the windows, you'll get the best appreciation of how Taniguchi integrated the modern MoMA into the surrounding older architecture.
If you follow the museum's contours, you'll move downward from floor to floor, and chronologically through the major art movements of the 20th century. Floors five and four are MoMA's intro to modern art - Picassos, Matisses, Dalis, Mondrians, Pollocks, de Koonings and a few Marcel Duchamp originals. The 3rd floor is packed with exhibits tracing the development of architecture and design. The 2nd floor contains prints, illustrated books, and exhibits about film and media that often coincide with film series put on in the new theaters below the lobby. Beyond the second floor atrium is an informal cafe and espresso bar with homey, communal tables. The 1st floor surrounds the wondrous, inspiring Sculpture Garden - step outside to take in the benches and trees bent into curious shapes.
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