Stories ·
How whole rooms and objects reached The Met
Follow the separate histories behind a moved temple and a reinstalled room.
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Look at the Temple of Dendur, with its gateway and rooms still standing. You are looking at an ancient building inside a museum in New York. The temple came from Nubia, where rising reservoir waters threatened monuments. Egypt presented it to the United States after the international rescue campaign. The glass enclosure and reflecting pool were made for its new home in New York.
The Damascus Room was once a reception room in a house. Its decorated interior was reinstalled here, and the opening through which you look differs from its earlier architectural arrangement. The exact location of its original house remains uncertain. The museum opening lets you look across the raised seating area from a position that was once a wall.
Look at one history at a time
Objects entered collections through purchases, gifts, excavations and other transfers. Each work needs its own account of that journey. A rescue campaign does not explain the journey of a portrait, and an acquisition date alone does not explain all the people or decisions behind it.
A room can be newly made
The Astor Court offers another comparison. Craftspeople made it for The Met, bringing Chinese building skills and handcrafted elements to a new setting. It opened in 1981. You can look at its wood, ceramic and stone while keeping that recent act of construction in view.