4. The Front Façade is Still Unfinished! (and was the third addition to the original building)

Famed architect Richard Morris Hunt was hired to design a grand 5th Avenue façade for the museum as part of a new master plan put forth in 1894 but died before construction began. This famous façade that visitors have known as the Met’s main entrance since 1902 was completed by his son, who carried out the design to almost all of his father’s specifications.

Thirty-one pieces of sculpture were originally designed for the façade, but a lack of funds left piles of uncarved stone atop the columns. These piles have since become an “accepted part of the façade.” [Heckscher] In Hunt’s original design, the four columns were to be topped by sculpture groups representing “four great periods of art: Egyptian, Greek, Renaissance, and Modern. Between each pair of columns sat a niche where Hunt intended to set a copy of one great work from each historical era.” [Gregory Gilmartin] After 117, the niches were finally filled in 2019 by a series of sculptures created by Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu. New art commissions now rotate through this previously unused space.