International Initiatives and Engagement

In addition to bringing works from across the world to The Met as part of its innovative temporary exhibition program, The Met shares works from its collection internationally, either as individual loans or in a more comprehensive manner through the form of focused displays or touring exhibitions. These highly anticipated collection-based projects undertaken with international partners and venues allow us to directly engage global audiences with both our encyclopedic collection and our groundbreaking scholarship. In any given year, nearly 1,700 of The Met’s objects are on loan to cultural institutions around the world to help realize creative and ambitious curatorial projects.

Recent examples include The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania from The Metropolitan Museum of Art presented at the Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai, and the National Museum of Qatar, Doha, in 2023 and 2024; From Impressionism to Early Modernism: French Masterpieces from the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which presents 81 signature paintings from The Met’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and opened at the National Museum of Korea in November 2025, previously on view at the National Palace Museum, Taiwan; and Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronze, 1100–1900, which opened at the Shanghai Museum in November 2025, an exhibition co-organized by The Met and the Shanghai Museum.

The Met is proud to support a suite of initiatives related to cultural property and collecting practices that include undertaking a focused review of works in the collection; hiring additional provenance researchers to join the many researchers and curators already doing this work at the Museum; further engaging staff and trustees; using The Met’s platform to support and contribute to public discourse on this topic; and partnering with global colleagues on exhibition, conservation and research initiatives.

As a universal museum presenting art from around the world, The Met is dedicated to working closely with our international colleagues on the study, display, and interpretation of art. The Museum engages with governments, cultural organizations, communities and scholars across the globe in a range of educational initiatives, discourse, and cooperation that bring new depths of understanding and innovation to the work we do. In 2023–2024, The Met Fellowship Program welcomed international fellows from across the globe for research and projects in 23 departments within the Museum.

At the Museum and around the world, The Met’s conservators and research scientists carry forward a proud tradition of discovery and preservation that has shaped the Museum since its founding. Their ongoing investigations built on technical research deepen our understanding of the objects under our care and help us understand their global contexts, and in collaboration with colleagues around the world, they lead projects that reveal new insights into artistic traditions across time and cultures. From on-site excavations to international conservation training programs, The Met is actively advancing global scholarship and best practices—ensuring that the world’s cultural heritage is preserved and understood for generations to come.

The Met Licensing Program collaborates with leading brands to share the beauty of the Museum’s unparalleled holdings with art lovers around the world. Together we endeavor to create exceptional products that take inspiration from artworks and techniques seen in The Met collection. The proceeds from every Met licensed product support the Museum’s collection, study, conservation, and presentation of 5,000 years of art.