Raphael: Sublime Poetry Is The Met’s Most Highly Attended Exhibition Since 2018

(New York, July 7, 2026)—The Met’s blockbuster exhibition Raphael: Sublime Poetry closed its three-month run at The Met Fifth Avenue after welcoming an extraordinary 6,800 visitors per day on average, making it the Museum’s highest-attended exhibition since 2018. It is also among the Museum’s most visited shows of the past 10 years, behind only two others: Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer (2017–18), which, like Raphael: Sublime Poetry, was curated by Carmen Bambach, the Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator in The Met’s Department of Drawings and Prints, and The Costume Institute’s Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018). Raphael: Sublime Poetry drew over 562,000 visitors from its opening on March 29 through its closing on June 28, 2026. The number represents nearly half of all visitors to the Museum during this time period.

“This truly extraordinary, landmark exhibition offered an unprecedented look at the brilliance and legacy of Raphael, a true titan of the Italian Renaissance,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled that such an outstanding number of visitors to The Met seized the chance to experience the breathtaking range of his creative genius through this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of some of the artist’s most iconic and seldom loaned works from around the globe.”

About the Exhibition
With 237 works—of which over 170 were by Raphael—Raphael: Sublime Poetry was the first comprehensive, international loan exhibition in the United States on Raphael (Raffaello di Giovanni Santi; 1483–1520), considered one of the greatest artists of all time. This major milestone show united drawings, paintings, tapestries, and decorative arts from public and private collections around the world to offer a fresh perspective on a defining figure of the Italian Renaissance, presenting his renowned masterpieces alongside rarely seen treasures to reveal an extraordinarily creative mind.

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July 7, 2026

Image: Installation view of Raphael: Sublime Poetry, on view March 29–June 28, 2026 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Rebecca Schear