The Metropolitan Museum of Art first opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum, served as its first President, and the publisher George Palmer Putnam came on board as its founding Superintendent. <ref> [http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/246896968/ NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art.] </ref> The first work ever to be acquired by the museum is a marble Roman sarcophagus listed as "Asiatic garland sarcophagus";<ref>http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rsar/ho_70.1.htm</ref> it is given the categorization number "70.1" because it was acquired in the year 1870 (the same year that the museum itself was established by an act of the New York State Legislature) and because it was the first piece of art acquired.<ref>http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=a&a=i&ID=1138</ref> | The Metropolitan Museum of Art first opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum, served as its first President, and the publisher George Palmer Putnam came on board as its founding Superintendent. <ref> [http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/246896968/ NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art.] </ref> The first work ever to be acquired by the museum is a marble Roman sarcophagus listed as "Asiatic garland sarcophagus";<ref>http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rsar/ho_70.1.htm</ref> it is given the categorization number "70.1" because it was acquired in the year 1870 (the same year that the museum itself was established by an act of the New York State Legislature) and because it was the first piece of art acquired.<ref>http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=g&p=a&a=i&ID=1138</ref> |