New York’s Metropolitan Museum Of Art has revealed plans for the $70 million (£54 million) overhaul of the Michael C Rockefeller Wing, where it hosts its Art Of Africa, Oceania and The Americas Department. The gallery sit within a 40,000 square foot wing on the south side of fifth avenue. The aim is to better showcase the collection of arts and artefacts created in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central and South America.
The AAOA collection started in 1893 when The Met was gifted Mexican stone sculptures and Peruvian ceramics. In 1969 philanthropist and former US vice president Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller donated his fine-arts survey of non-Western art traditions. The collection included African and Oceanic works that were not yet represented in the museum. Fast forward to today, the collection consists of 11,000 works across various disciplines and dating as far back as 3,000 BCE
