5. “Unidentified Object” near the Metropolitan Museum at Central Park

Just south of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park along Fifth Avenue is a basalt sculpture by Isamu Noguchi titled “Unidentified Object.” It was originally installed at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza at 59th Street by the Public Art Fund in 1979 and stood there for a month. The Public Art Fund wrote at the time it was the “first installation of a Noguchi in a public space in New York City,” likely meaning that his other earlier commissions had been for private buildings or privately owned public space in buildings. In 1981, it was then donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation.