Culture

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art named world’s best museum in 2017

The iconic New York museum bags the title for the third year in a row, beating the Art Institute of Chicago and Paris’s Musée d’Orsay.

Sep 27, 2017 | By Pameyla Cambe

New York has it all: fashion capital status, several of the best bars and hotels in the world and — for the third year in a row now — the World’s Best Museum. The titleholder is none other than the Metropolitan Museum of Art, affectionately referred to by New Yorkers and patrons as “the Met” in their gushing reviews on TripAdvisor.

For the 2017 edition of TripAdvisor’s Traveller’s Choice Awards, the travel website saw more than 44,600 reviews bestowing a full five out of five bubbles upon the Met. This gives the museum, which is the largest one in the United States, the highest rates of visitor satisfaction in the world.

Taking into account the ratings, quantity and quality of reviews on its website over a 12-month period, TripAdvisor’s special algorithm determines the world’s top 10 museums every year.

This year, the Met is accompanied by quite a few other American museums on the list. The National WWII Museum in New Orleans came in second, while the Art Institute of Chicago took the fourth place. Another one of New York’s galleries made the list as well. The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which commemorates the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, is listed at the sixth position.

Outside of the USA, the Musée d’Orsay (#3) became the top-rated museum in France, while the world’s largest museum, St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace (#5) topped the list in Russia.

If you’re planning a visit to the world’s best museum anytime soon, here are some of the exhibitions that you should look out for:

Rodin – “The Eve” by Edward J. Steichen

Rodin at The Met

September 16, 2017 to January 15, 2018

A centenary after his death, the magic of Auguste Rodin’s true-to-life sculptures is not lost. To mark the 100th anniversary, the Met is displaying their grand collection of the French sculptor’s oeuvre, built from a century of acquisitions and museum donations. On display are some 50 marbles, bronzes, plasters and earthenware works. Keep an eye out for some of Rodin’s well-known masterpieces, such as “The Hand of God”, “The Tempest” and the perpetually contemplative “The Thinker”.

Edvard Munch. The Scream. Pastel on board. 1895.

Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed

November 15, 2017 to February 4 2018

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s exploration of human anxiety has always been a keystone of his work, and it’s his depictions of the theme that had catapulted him to fame early in his career. To Munch, however, his renaissance came much later in life at the age of 50. One of his final works, titled “Self Portrait: Between the Clock and the Bed”, evokes the themes of desire, mortality, isolation and anxiety, serving as a lens to reassess the artist’s work. You can do just that at this upcoming exhibition at The Met Breuer, which will feature 45 masterworks created by Munch over six decades. This includes 16 self-portraits and paintings that will be showcased in the US for the first time.

David Hockney, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures),” 1971

David Hockney

November 27, 2017 to February 25, 2018

Having travelled to Tate Britain in London and Paris’s Centre Pompidou beforehand, the major David Hockney retrospective celebrating the British artist’s 80th birthday is finally coming to New York. A wide selection of Hockney’s iconic works and key moments from his six-decade-long career will be presented at the exhibition. “David Hockney” will also highlight the artist’s achievements across a range of media: notably drawings, photography and video. For those who happen to be in North America, this is the show’s only venue in the region — and you won’t want to miss it.


 
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