Incorporated in 1870, the Museum opened to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street in 1880. The architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed the initial Ruskinian Gothic structure, the west facade of which is still visible in the Robert Lehman Wing. The Museum's Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade and Great Hall, designed by the architect and founding Museum Trustee Richard Morris Hunt, opened in 1902. The building has since expanded greatly, and the various additions now completely surround the original structure. It now offers a huge network of galleries exhibiting more than 490,000 works of global art spanning five millenia. The Museum early gained a reputation as a major repository of classical antiquities. In 1871, its inaugural purchase was a Roman sarcophagus, followed by the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot art in 1874–76. The American Wing now houses the world's most comprehensive collection of American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts. The majority of the Museum’s large collection of stained glass is housed in the Cloisters, the Museum’s medieval museum in Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan. The Fifth Avenue building houses glass of the Renaissance and later, including the panels of Swiss origin.
Furthermore, 17 stucco and glass windows belong to the collection since 1893.

Conlin, J. (2024). The Met: A History of a Museum and Its People, New York: Columbia University Press.

Hibbard H. (1988). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Harrison House.