 
The Proconnesian Garland Sarcophagus, a carved Roman
coffin of the third century A.D., was the first work of art to enter the Metropolitan
Museum of Art's collections in 1870. You can tell what year an object entered the Museum
by its "accession" number. The Garland Sarcophagus's accession number is 70.1,
because it became part of the collections in 1870 and it was object number one. The Museum
also began to collect paintings in 1870, when three private collections were acquired. |
