How many works of art are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection contains approximately 2 million works of art.

That estimate reflects the Met’s encyclopedic scope: its holdings cover more than 5,000 years and include ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, Asian, African, Oceanian, Islamic, European, American, modern, and contemporary art. The collection is organized across 17 curatorial departments, with additional conservation and scientific-research teams caring for it.

The total includes far more than paintings and sculptures. Prints, photographs, drawings, textiles, costumes, musical instruments, arms and armor, manuscripts, decorative arts, and archaeological objects all contribute to the figure. The Met’s two New York sites—the Fifth Avenue building and The Cloisters—together present only a small selection of this enormous body of material at any one time.

Exact totals can vary by year and by counting method, because museums acquire, catalog, combine, or deaccession objects and may count groups differently. For a general-trivia question, however, “approximately 2 million” is the standard answer. It should not be confused with the number of objects currently on display, which is only a fraction of the full collection.