To celebrate Philippe de Montebello's thirty-one years as director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Museum's Forum of Curators, Conservators, and Scientists organized an exhibition of approximately
three hundred works of art—from a total of more than eighty-four thousand—that were acquired during
his tenure. This unique exhibition, which was on view October 24, 2008, through February 1, 2009,
was a collaboration among curators from the Museum's seventeen
curatorial departments. Special emphasis was
placed on works that had been transformative to the Metropolitan Museum's collection by building
on existing strengths and expanding into new areas.
Acquired by purchase and donation, individually and in groups, these works demonstrate how
the de Montebello years enhanced the Museum's encyclopedic collection dramatically and
encouraged public access to the greatness of the world's artistic traditions.
Read more about the exhibition or
see images of the works on view.