Original subtitles

Nestled in New York's Central Park,

this is the largest art museum in America.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is 2.3 million square feet

of objects spanning 5,000 years of history.

The museum really was an audacious vision,

to create a cultural centre that rivalled the greatest in the world.

The Met is a collection of collections -

paintings, jewellery, textiles, statuary,

and the world's most famous fashion gala.

Every year we're pumping out something pretty amazing.

It's America's treasure house.

The collection is what excites every curator

to be part of this institution.

In 2020 the Met turned 150.

In its pomp, and ready to celebrate...

I'm this excited!

..but as the revels began,

Covid-19 struck New York.

REPORTER: There are new warnings about the coronavirus outbreak.

For the first time ever, the Met was shut - indefinitely.

In the summer, the urgent need for social justice,

highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement,

had the museum promising to change.

But how to pay for it?

Without tourists and with restricted viewing,

The Met's in the red.

And they come to you for the money for this?

And I've got find the money to do it.

The building itself needs constant repair.

But what about conservation and research?

For me this piece is not very big.

To finish this one, two years.

Who will pay for new acquisitions...?

I don't think I will ever see this rarity

and beauty on the market again.

..and the blockbuster exhibitions that keep the tills ringing?

It's a massive undertaking.

I mean, it's the best, for costuming,

it's the best for fashion.

The Met has always relied on patrons and donors,

but as the economy shrinks,

do philanthropists have anything left to give?

The truth of the matter is,

nobody can really take care of 403 guitars.

It's Autumn 2020.

Halloween and Christmas are not far off.

But at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art,

they're not feeling celebratory.

The pandemic's left a $150 million hole in their finances.

Once, 25,000 visitors came through these doors every day.

Post-Covid, safety regulations mean it's 5,000 at most.

Maybe give them a chance. Give them a chance to get their stride.

It's like you're coming out of a cocoon.

Nine months into the Met's anniversary year,

President Dan Weiss is philosophical.

The world has changed in such seismic and remarkable ways,

I think it's important to be mindful of the many things I don't know

and cannot do.

And, therefore, to be appreciative of others who can do those things.

The violin on my wall reminds me both of its beauty,

its magnificence, but also of when I aspired to learn to play it.

And in very short order my teacher concluded

I didn't have an ear for music

and I would never be able to learn to play the violin.

I suspect as a teacher she was a complete failure,

but I look at this instrument and I'm reminded of both things.

It is one of the great objects of the musical universe for me

and, boy, I cannot play it.

I just don't know how. But I love to watch people who do.

Most people think leadership is about telling everybody what to do.

And I...I don't see it that way.

Any leadership job is really about empowering other people

to do what they can do better than anyone else.

And I'm very good at surrounding myself with people

who are a lot more talented than I am.

Slow and keep an eye on the front.

Safety concerns mean few staff are allowed on site.

The heavy lifting team are in today,

to send home a four-tonne megalith lent by a Senegalese museum.

Keep coming...keep coming. Stop!

The Met's cash-strapped,

but must lend and borrow on a global scale

to mount exhibitions visitors will pay good money to see.

We've got to go slow, guys.

Transportation costs are huge,

but the safe handling of other people's treasures is essential.

Right, let's stop, guys.

Conservators must oversee every movement.

It is nice to come into the museum and do...do our job.

I don't think any of us will ever forget this year.

It's like a mile marker.

It's going to be before and after this year.

Watch that corner, Derek.

When they first started talking about the 150th anniversary,

I remember doing that quick calculation in my head,

I'm like, "Oh, my God, that's an election year."

And I just knew it was going to be a crazy year.

But I don't think any of us could have imagined the levels.

Project manager Margaret Choo has been working from home

for six months.

The avid baker had been asked to make the Met's official

150th birthday cake,

but had to eat it herself in March

and some of April.

I was super excited to make it.

I'd had ideas of what kind of decorations I would do

and what kind of flavours I would do.

And when it didn't happen it was kind of crushing.

Today, Met executives have a finance meeting -

Margaret's got permission to return to Fifth Avenue...

with her cake!

This part is my favourite, decorating the cake.

Putting all the things that really make it, like, a wow!

Like, a reason to celebrate.

I haven't been back in over six months,

which is the longest I haven't been there in, like, almost ten years.

Seeing the pictures from the opening day

and how totally jubilant and excited people were,

it shocked me to see how needed it was.

I'm feeling pretty nervous, just not knowing what to expect.

You know, the stickers on the floor and signs,

that just wasn't a part of the museum when I left it.

Hi, Clyde.

Hi, there! Oh, my gosh!

On the Executive Floor,

the Met's landmark year has been memorable,

for all the wrong reasons.

What is inside? So this is like a vanilla with raspberry jam.

Wow! And the bottom one is a chocolate.

Chocolate. Espresso whisky.

You like cake, too? What is this? Yeah, everyone.

Director Max Hollein has seen his anniversary exhibition schedule collapse.

Margaret, this is quite delicious. Thank you.

I'm going to have to try both of them. You have to.

Oh, my God!

Clyde B Jones leads the team that must find sponsors with money,

as the economy tanks.

Communications Chief Ken Weine has yet more bad news.

The numbers have been "meh" the last couple of weeks.

We can only go to about 5,000.

And some days during the week has been as low as 2,800.

And when we reopened there was this huge joint appetite among many.

Right. But now that school is back and whatnot...

With cases rising in the city,

people are just a little bit more reluctant to go out.

We can't bring donors back.

We can't do...we can't do stewardship.

We can't invite people in.

We're in the relationship business. That's right.

How do you do relations in this? How do you do relationships when you can't see people?

Even our staff of almost 2,000,

we asked back, I don't know, 400-ish.

To the others we said, please don't come back.

You know, it's like a wild fire across the cultural landscape

and, and who can, erm, survive in the long run is really,

really going to be scary.

I mean, we're not going anywhere, in terms of improving,

until Europeans are allowed to fly here.

New York City enjoyed a million visitors from China

last year for the first time ever.

The Met was their number one destination.

How many years is it going to take for that, erm, group to come back?

A very loyal, wonderful group of visitors who spend a lot of money.

Every single constituency of the museum is going to have to

come together to get us back to...to...to where we were.

It's going to be the funders, it's going to be the visitors,

because people have to be willing to come back into the museum

in greater numbers than they are right now.

The community is going to have to come together, in a way,

to encourage civic engagement.

Income from visitors helps keep the building open and the lights on.

Four blocks long, five storeys high,

2.3 million square feet under 14 acres of roof,

six of them of glass.

MECHANICAL BUZZING

Patrons and foundations have donated huge sums to the Met,

but mostly for art.

Few want to pay for photocopiers, floor polishers,

or specialist lifts like this

that cost thousands of dollars new or used...

We call it spider rig.

..or this team showing how many people it takes

to screw in a light bulb.

I know that's the job, but we do more than changing light bulbs.

But we have between 60 to 70,000 light fixtures

throughout the building.

It's a complicated job, believe it or not.

Clyde Jones has an inspiring view of glass roofs

being replaced at a cost of $150 million.

A project begun before Covid.

Much of what we do is a personal connection -

having people in the museum, having them see the objects,

having them engage with the exhibitions.

We have been able to engage with folks in small groups,

but it's a whole lot more difficult to do 100 engagements

with two people, than it is to do one engagement with 200 people.

It's through the generosity of individuals and corporations

and foundations that we're able to be here at all.

Central to the imminent remodelling of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas galleries

will be the replacement of a vast wall of glass.

There are structural issues with these windows.

They're the same as there are in the Temple of Dendur -

but that's north facing and this is south facing.

There are objects in here that cannot be in the direct southern sun.

So these windows have had to be shaded,

which is really unfortunate.

It's dark and it's enclosed.

I mean that sort of points to deepest darkest Africa,

when in fact those cultures are bright

and they're open and they're sunny, and the space should reflect that.

And they come to you for the money for this?

I mean, you've got to find the money to...

And I've got to find the money to do it. Right, exactly.

People said, "Oh, you're not going to be able to raise money

"for Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas.

"There's no...there are no young people who are interested in that."

But we found that that was, in fact, not the case.

We've raised about 90% of the money before Covid.

There are a lot of people who care about the many cultures

that are represented in these galleries.

We've got to figure out what people are passionate about

and help them find that passion here in the walls of the Met.

There are still collectors in the vein of the Rockefellers

and the Havemeyers.

But the regular member,

the person who makes a gift of $25 to the museum

because they had a great time, those people are just as important.

Some senior staff salaries are sponsored.

Michael Gallagher is Head of Painting Conservation,

a post funded by an aeronautics corporation.

After months at home,

he has permission to return to a passion project

he had to abandon in March.

My first day back and I'm completely choked up

to be back in here, to be handling an object again.

I've had a wave of, "Oh, my God,

"I've forgotten how much I love this.

"What an incredible privilege it is."

This was a new discovery,

the Bohemian Picture by the Master of Vyssi Brod.

When I saw this picture in Paris,

the background was entirely over-painted.

But there was a suggestion of an intact original background underneath.

So we took that risk.

In fact, the Chair of the Acquisitions Committee said,

"On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you

"that you can get that over-paint off

"and that the original's intact underneath?"

And for no good reason, I said a nine.

Erm, and...

..could have been, could have been the end of things.

The panel was to be auctioned in Dijon.

Potential buyers knew X-rays had revealed

what lay beneath the over-painting - but not its condition.

Gallagher was sure he could remove the dark material,

but didn't know if the masterpiece would come off with it.

The removal of the over-paint all takes place under the microscope.

The pigment's imbibed a lot of varnish over the years.

You can see the colour change where there's some varnish

been taken off here, and where it is still on here.

The colour palette has been a sort of shock to everyone.

This painting was from the middle of the 14th century,

so it's an incredible survivor.

I'm saving removing the varnish

from the central figure group till the end.

That will be like dessert, because it'll be straightforward.

The varnish on the very top is probably a late-19th century,

early-20th century.

The over-paint is quite a bit older than that.

One of the frustrations of getting older in conservation is

just as you feel that your judgment is getting better

is when your eyesight starts to go.

Working on instinct, taking a gamble,

is part of the conservator's job.

But the Covid cash crisis has made the museum risk averse.

Right now there is no question we would not be probably

pursuing the acquisition.

I don't think I could responsibly take that risk again.

Head of European Paintings, Keith Christiansen, comes to the studio.

He is soon to retire - this is a bittersweet moment.

It's really amazing.

I think people will be bowled over by this.

It's the colour, the brilliance of this background.

It's just extraordinary, and I don't think

I will ever see this rarity and beauty on the market again.

The price obviously was considerable.

Yeah. This will have been a very inexpensive picture for what it is.

It was about $6 million, yeah, yeah.

Which sounds like... Which sounds like a lot.

But for something of this rarity and beauty it's actually not that much.

I can tell you right now there are a number of collectors who

would jump at this right now.

And we're not buying for the short term,

we're buying for the long term.

And...

..the next generation will not even think about what it was paid.

All they will be pleased is that it's here and that they can see it.

The obligation of a great museum is the movement of things

from the private sphere into the public sphere.

There's not a visitor who doesn't go into the Van Gogh Gallery

and is grateful for the occasion of seeing them.

And who cares that this museum spent $60 million

for the landscape with cypresses.

All they know is that standing in front of it is something

that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

However, following Covid and the financial, really, disaster that has been part of it,

and with all the staff cuts that we've had,

it would be very difficult to justify spending that kind of money.

However, a generation later they would look back and say,

"Gee, that was a shame that the museum didn't have the foresight to do this."

You know, I'm glad I'm not in that position.

That's the Director's job, to juggle long term mission

with what we're doing in a real crisis right now.

The cash crisis has led to a freeze on acquisitions,

but just conserving the museum's existing collections takes time,

and time is money.

For now, in the textile labs,

Anna Szalecki is still able to take her time.

This is special because this is 14th century.

So this is part of really huge history.

Bringing back this tapestry to the beauty,

I forget my neck hurts or eyes hurt.

I work so many years on the conservation field,

but when I finish my career it will be something, something unique done.

For me this piece is not, not very big.

For castle, this is small size.

I really work on carpets and tapestries, huge tapestries.

To finish this one, two years it will be done.

I do fast as...as much as I can,

but because this is unique, I have to do it in a very good way.

It's not like the museum has exhibition and put back

and spends 20 years in storage

and hangs only one year or two years.

But this one, it will hang for 100 years.

The department head, Dr Janina Poskrobko, has a large team.

She knows personnel and projects could be in jeopardy.

We needed a lot of time for research, for study and more

and more of the museum's funds are being restricted.

I've never told Anna this

but I expected this project would have not been funded for long.

A week later, at home on Staten Island,

Janina Poskrobko is up early to say her prayers.

Today, the Head of Textile Conservation

catches an early ferry for Manhattan.

Professor Walter Denny is coming for breakfast.

He heads a group of textile friends and supporters.

These are the people who are supposed to help us,

maybe not that they will donate money to us,

but maybe they will be able to bring us donors.

Janina hopes Walter will help her fundraising drive.

Walter probably will be hungry

because his drive from Massachusetts is very long.

This is Polish sausage called kabanosy,

tomatoes and dry apples and Polish bread.

And Polish yeast cake.

Walter is a friend, he's a fantastic scholar.

The professor is a frequent visitor, but somehow remains trim.

He's really here for the love of textiles.

In 2007, when I came down here for the first time,

I stumbled into one of the most marvellous experiences of my life.

But this is one of the priority projects,

the King Arthur Tapestry.

And one of the most famous objects in the Met.

Would you like to see the Barberini coat?

Sure.

Janina unveils another treasure.

Might Walter elicit donations for this project

from other fabric fanciers?

We're just letting it rest quietly

so that we can get it into the case and it's pretty amazing actually.

And it's got the busy little bees of the Barberini family

right down there.

It became very clear that in this very difficult time

it is really... my role increasing, erm, in terms of...finances.

It's an amazing object.

And I'm so glad that it's finally going to go out on display.

The loveliness of the cape is enveloping Walter,

when Janina makes her move.

So we had this great Autumn on the Rope from 18th century.

Yeah. But it required a lot of conservation.

But it's a complete piece so we can think about it.

As long as someone would come up with the funds to do it.

Janina has given it her best shot.

Walter knew she had to ask.

From the point of view of someone who has very little in the way

of money to give, but he gives everything that he can,

what binds people together and the relationship between the museum and its public

is in fact enthusiasm, love, excitement and passion.

This is a passion.

Not only that, the nice thing about this passion is

it's not quite as infectious as Covid,

but if you're eloquent enough you can infect other people with it.

So, I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to

how you work inter-departmentally.

The Met must ignite that passion in the next generation.

Around 200 interns are currently in training -

a vital investment in the museum's future.

I was curious about the collaborations between famous conservations at the Met...

The head of education is watching an online mentoring session.

The Met is committed to creating a more diverse workforce.

A recent $5 million bequest provides each intern with a salary.

The intern programme immediately opens up and diversifies.

And by diversity, I don't just mean, you know,

differences you can see, but in points of view.

The idea is to bring in young scholars

with different ways of seeing the world.

Begin there, and as they do their research

and they move on in their careers they will ask different questions.

They would question the established canons.

And you would shift the field more or less from the inside out.

I think it can start happening as early as five years,

as these people graduate from school, you know,

and beginning to get into entry level positions and going forth.

And, you know, we just did the first 150 years.

I would hope the next 150 years will be completely different.

A Californian of Vietnamese descent,

Kevin Pham is an intern with the Medieval Department,

funded by donor cash.

This is so incredible.

And this is your first time at the Cloisters, right?

The Met Cloisters is his official base,

but Covid meant he could never visit in person - until today.

Co-intern Shania Johnson is with him, on the phone.

One of my professors back home told me about the internship

and how could I pass up an opportunity like the Met?

The Met Cloisters is a network of medieval buildings,

home to a collection of objects that, until now,

the interns have only experienced virtually.

Oh, my, those vaulted ceilings!

I know, right?!

Being paid to study makes interning possible for students

from communities and backgrounds under-represented

in the Met's staff lists.

My family, my parents, my grandparents,

they never had the opportunities to go to museums,

to enjoy artwork, to understand art.

And that's something that I'm fighting for -

that a lot of my peers are fighting for, too.

We're fighting to be in these places,

not just as guests admiring the artwork,

but doing this kind of work, as well.

I still love the little detail of, of baby Jesus

tugging on the first King's, like, hair like that.

It froze a little bit.

Oh, whoops! Hello, hello, hello?

Kevin's main mission today is to see a 16th-century book

of flower paintings he's marvelled at online.

Hi, Shania. Hello.

I'm so glad you can be here to see this.

So what we're looking at is a book of flower illustrations that

dates to the early-1500s.

So we're looking at a roughly 500-year-old book here.

And every single flower depicted, we grow... Absolutely. ..in the gardens here.

That was actually going to be my question.

I'm glad to know that that's happening.

Yeah, this manuscript provides a bridge between, you know,

the works of art that we have on display

and the natural works of art that we have outside.

I really don't know what to say.

I'm just so overwhelmed by the beauty of all of it.

This opportunity is just once in a lifetime, to be able to work

on these masterpieces and to be here in person now to see them as well.

I feel like I'm just, like, on the edge of tears constantly,

just looking at all of this.

You really can't replicate this experience online at all.

And the Met certainly has a lot of work to do,

but I'm here and I'm an intern,

that's definitely something.

And I'm not the only one, as well.

And we're here because we love art

and that shouldn't be limited to, you know,

rich old white men with beards.

It should be for everyone.

From the day it opened,

The Met has relied on philanthropy,

gifts of money and also of precious objects.

In 2019, the Musical Instruments Department Exhibition Play It Loud

featured 130 instruments, many of them lent by rock legends.

They included guitarist Steve Miller, who sent this unique

Gibson Les Paul.

PLAYS GUITAR LICK

DELAY-EFFECT GUITAR CHORD

Yeah!

Jayson! Hey, Steve!

How are ya?

I'm good, we can't see you yet.

Miller has been a key donor to the Met for years.

He knows that right now the museum needs its friends to rally round.

That's been ten years now, so... 2011, yeah.

Well, yeah, yeah.

And, gosh, we've done three shows and it's just been fantastic.

To actually have an input is really gratifying

and it's so important for just our culture,

for all of us to support our museums.

That we're fortunate that we live in a time

when we have these institutions.

For now, he can't enter the museum,

but Miller can ask curator Jayson Dobney

to help him edit his massive guitar collection.

How many guitars do you have?

Well, I have I think 405 instruments in my collection.

And, well, now I have to say 403 because I've given you two of them.

The two best ones.

Two magnificent ones.

The truth of the matter is, nobody can really take care of 403 guitars.

I have my first guitar,

I still have three of them that I play all the time.

So, I'm totally happy making the collection accessible

to other people and to have other people play the instruments

so that they don't just sit there in a glass box.

The guitar celebrates a great maker and a special relationship.

My godfather was Les Paul

and I was around Les when I was starting

from the time I was like five years old. So...

I play electric guitar like he did.

Les Paul developed a lot of the tools that we use in recording.

And besides all that,

he was one of the greatest guitar players in the world.

For me, it's a great, great opportunity to be useful, really.

So, what the...and nothing could be better than that, so...

Gosh, Steve, thank you so much.

The Les Paul will join the museum's permanent collection.

Exhibitions like Play It Loud surprise those

who think the Met's just marble and old masters.

The Costume Institute doesn't do dowdy.

Their annual exhibition is always an extravaganza.

The department's preparing their landmark year blockbuster show.

These are the biggest exhibitions that we do at the Met,

without a doubt. Broadway theatre is probably

the closest to this kind of level of production.

About Time needs to draw crowds and make a big statement -

The Met's still got it.

It's a massive undertaking.

Of course this was conceived of before everything happened,

and actually completely built.

And it had to sit in the production company warehouse

for three months until we could bring them in.

Now, costs are closely monitored,

but before Covid, shows like it cost around $3.5 million to stage.

Much of the money for About Time came from the 2019 Met Gala -

the event that every year funds the museum's Costume Institute.

Gotham's glossiest social event brings out the stars

for the ultimate photo opportunity.

Designers dress them in couture that echoes the theme

of the annual exhibition.

But in 2020, Covid has taken the ball away.

The Costume Institute's head curator will miss the money,

but also the glow the event provides.

The show gets so much attention through the attention the gala gets.

It's such an extraordinary moment.

The show really basks in its reflected glory.

And it's also, you know, it's a time for the community

to come and celebrate fashion. So, that's been sad.

Bolton has made About Time a meditation

for the Met's anniversary year.

The passage of time is central to the setting.

There are two different clocks, clock one, clock two.

We're currently in clock two.

So it's 120 garments in 60 pairings.

The show looks at fashion and temporality.

We wanted to highlight master works from our collection.

And we had this concept of the Met's 150 years.

So we're producing two timelines.

The lower run is a very linear chronology of fashion,

but the second timeline behind are pieces that relate through

the silhouette or material or motif or decoration.

So, through these sort of pairings,

rather than having times as succession of events,

it's this coexistence of the past and the present.

What the show tries to also address is notions of longevity

and how particular motifs or silhouettes endure.

This one's one of my favourite juxtapositions.

So this is the princess line.

And it was a silhouette that basically had no waist seam.

But what it does is create a very elongated torso,

elongated silhouette. And I paired it with McQueen's Bumster.

Everyone used to say he was inspired by the builder's bum,

but he was really looking at the princess line.

By having trousers and, in this case, a skirt,

that slip down, you have the same elongated torso.

The rationale for black was any monochrome colour,

but particular black, emphasises the form of a dress.

It's art as theatre.

This off Broadway production costs a fortune.

But the Institute has help in kind, as well as in cash.

Like all Met departments, they rely on the kindness of strangers

and the closest of friends.

While fashion fans await the opening of About Time,

In Pursuit Of Fashion keeps them engaged.

It's a presentation of rare couture

from the archives of collector Sandy Schreier.

In 2018, she donated 165 garments to the Costume Institute.

The department is used to dedicated followers of fashion,

but to Associate Curator Jessica Regan,

Mrs Schreier is a one-off.

Sandy was really ahead of her time in thinking about fashion

as an art form.

She was building what she saw as a collection,

as a group of objects that were worthy of preserving.

You know, that is a unique thing among fashion collectors.

She collected very instinctively,

but she had an incredible eye

and, of course, she developed this great level

of kind of stewardship.

This collection is inherently a reflection of her taste, of course,

but also her personality,

because these selections were so personal

and she has a wonderful sense of humour.

She always said to us that this was something that was fun for her.

I think that she very much appreciates designers who, you know,

embrace that sense of wit and playfulness and fun.

We did make a great number of visits and, you know,

spent a lot of time just chatting about her collection

and she always had the most wonderful stories.

Sandy lives 600 miles away to the west,

in Detroit, Michigan.

SANDY: From the opening of the Met exhibition,

everybody was saying that this was the greatest thing

they had ever seen. Because it's a fairy tale.

You know, I never knew that my life was a fairy tale

until they said that.

In the 1950s, Sandy's father was the furrier who dressed

the wives of Motor City magnates.

They thought I was adorable.

They thought I looked like a little Shirley Temple.

And they began gifting me with their unwanted

and, very often, sometimes unworn couture.

And that's how my collection began.

They all thought I was going to play dress-up in the objects

they were giving me.

But I never even tried them on.

I felt that they were too precious to even touch.

By the time I was in my early teens,

I already had hundreds of these beautiful, gorgeous gowns.

Although everyone in Detroit made fun of me - my friends,

my relatives, everybody said,

"Oh, my goodness, you're just a bag lady."

I mean, they didn't have that expression in those days,

but I was the little girl with bags of old clothes.

It was, in fact, the start of what would become one of the most

important private collections in America.

What I care about is fashion as art.

When Sherwin and I were teenagers,

I persuaded my parents to loan us the car,

and I didn't tell them where we were going.

And we drove to New York so I could show Sherwin the Met.

And as we walked through the galleries, I said to Sherwin,

one day my beautiful dresses are going to be right here.

The garments could have gone to any museum,

but to collectors like Sandy, only the Met will do.

The Costume Institute holds items from around five centuries.

Many of them are actual garments.

The best are available for exhibitions,

others are kept as references for fashion researchers.

There's also a huge accessories archive.

We have almost 33,000 objects overall.

Shoes, hats and jewellery.

Parasols.

Handbags, fans.

Muffs, collars, aprons.

The benchmarks of the Met's founders still pertain.

Beauty and excellence determine which hats

and handbags are worthy of the collection.

It's a combination of acquisition from an auction house

or a dealer, as well as donation.

Sometimes it's a collector that collected a lot of pieces

and sometimes it's a donation

straight from the designers themselves.

No detail is too fine to be of interest.

The Met has a pair of Alexander McQueen Armadillo shoes

from his final catwalk show, Plato's Atlantis.

These were purchased for us.

They were designed for Alexander McQueen and they are iconic

because of the shape they create on the foot.

They are sought after objects.

Lady Gaga wearing them certainly helped their prestige.

But what was the genesis of the design?

The Met has traced the London shoemaker McQueen hired

to interpret his ideas, with a view to acquiring her original artwork.

I received an email from Andrew Bolton from the Met

to say that he...

was potentially interested in acquiring the archive.

It's so exciting.

I've kept every single bit of artwork.

Trained at the Royal College of Art,

it was the sculptural qualities of her own footwear range that

attracted designer Lee McQueen to Georgina Goodman.

He said, erm, "Can you draw?"

And I was like, "Yeah, I can."

And he put some paper in front of me, he goes "draw something".

I think I drew ten things.

He looked at them and he said,

"Do you think you could work with me?"

And I went, "Yeah. I do. I could work with you.

"I'd love to work with you".

This is a research and design folder for the Alien shoe.

It's the same collection as the Armadillo.

This is actually a drawing that's been amended in a meeting with Lee.

Oh, and here is a very early sketch of the Armadillo.

It does function as a shoe, you can wear it, it can be walked in.

Originally he wanted it with no heel.

But there had to be sort of a compromise.

But it was about getting this form.

Working with Lee, I had to interpret what he was thinking, look at...

what the clothes were and suggest ideas.

It's not my job to put my thoughts on paper,

it's my job to interpret his vision.

I think the right place for these drawings is the Met.

Alexander McQueen is such a key part of fashion history.

And I think the Armadillo shoe was a pretty key element

that people do remember.

But I don't know how to preserve the archive.

They are very precious to me

and I want it handled with white gloves by lovely curators.

And these drawings should be seen by other people.

When I show students of footwear,

they get excited because they know the object.

And then to see the process is so special.

Showing a drawing or showing where an idea has come from

actually helps people connect to the object.

If other people could be inspired by it,

that's really exciting

and that does help you feel validated as a creative.

These drawings will add depth to the stories the Institute can tell.

The Met's reputation as a centre of academic excellence

is enhanced by donations like these.

In East Harlem, Naqiya Hussain is about to become a Met donor.

She's investing $20 in two tickets

to the most romantic destination in town.

This is a date dress, I would say.

I think it's maybe not right.

I'm going to go try something else on.

Met dates are all the rage.

Like so many Manhattan youths,

Naqiya and her beau Cyril have for months been locked down,

going out but staying in.

The challenge has been finding...

things to do and ways to be romantic.

The bigger question isn't the dress,

the bigger question is the accessories.

Except I can't really think about shoes.

Not if you have a date at the museum.

Because...

you have to wear...

something that won't destroy your back.

Have you heard of the museum shuffle?

What's the museum shuffle?

It's when you, just, your feet start hurting,

so you start just doing this.

The Met, for me, is my place.

I'm very familiar with the space.

I really love being there,

so to be able to share that with someone is exciting.

Even if you're not interested in art,

it's not even about beauty, it's about having conversations

about how ridiculous something looks,

or how something makes you laugh or reminds you of something.

Make-up time. I mean, the little make-up I will do.

I would never take someone to the Met on a first date.

It's too important a space for me.

It's like you have to earn...

You have to earn that,

for me to be able to feel like,

"OK, this is a person who I think we will have a good time."

I don't want to be in that space and not enjoy myself.

It's like meeting your family, you have to earn that.

For me, you have to earn the Met.

We've been to the museum once before,

this will be the first where it's just the two of us.

My hand is cold? It's cold outside. I can warm it up.

Took you forever to get here.

I'm excited to share it with him.

This is from where my mum grew up.

And talk more and get him to open up about parts of his life

that maybe didn't occur to him to talk to me about.

The museum is open, but feels empty.

Naqiya and Cyril enjoy the tranquillity of solitude

in the Asian Department.

Oh, this one's really cool, too, look.

Oh, this would have been painted.

I do not look like that.

What do you mean?

SHE CHUCKLES

OK.

I think if you're the kind of person who enjoys being in museums,

then it's nice to have a partner who also potentially can find joy in it.

But if your partner absolutely hates it,

then I would imagine it would make a really boring date, right?

Around this corner should be my favourite object.

Look at it!

The striding figure with ibex horns and upturned boots,

and no pants.

It feels like someone with a sense of humour made him.

That didn't occur to me but sure.

Also, like, why boots but no pants?

I love him.

So, like, this is all carved plaster.

The Moroccan Court is one of my favourite places in the museum.

It's intimate and it's a moment to just breathe and relax.

To do that and feel safe,

given everything that's been happening with Covid,

it feels exceptionally lucky to be able to have access

to things like that.

A successful date?

Yeah, I think so.

Well, none of the security guards scolded us so I think that's a win.

Yeah.

OK.

Is he a keeper?

This one? Yeah.

For now, yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

Locals like Naqiya don't have to pay to enter the Met,

but while New Yorkers are the only visitors,

donations like hers are vital.

The Met relies on community spirit.

Since the 1870s, it's drawn wealthy art lovers to the neighbourhood.

Good girl.

Every evening, Dan Weiss walks his dog Ali

along the west side of Fifth Avenue,

knowing he's just feet from millions of dollars worth of treasure.

Well, one of my predecessors said that one of the missions

of this museum is to get all of the art on that side of the street

onto this side of the street.

And for 150 years this is what we've been doing.

Our building is filled with art that used to be across the street.

What a good girl!

We live right across the street.

Some of the exhibitions do have lines that go

right in front of our sidewalk here.

And we're fortunate to have the Met as our neighbour.

We look out and we see the Temple of Dendur

and the northern part of the museum.

Mr and Mrs Abbey made their fortune practising law -

and spent it on art.

We've been married 63 years.

That's all.

We first started collecting posters.

Then we went to prints.

Then we graduated to paintings.

Oils, paintings. Oils and period furniture.

Some ancient textiles.

Glass, contemporary paintings.

Along with their conventional artworks,

the couple have a more specialised interest.

We have a wonderful bamboo collection.

We walked into a gallery -

Diane said, "I've never seen anything quite like these.

"These are just wonderful."

A spark went off and we decided that we would try to put together a collection.

Eventually, they amassed over 200 pieces,

guided by their neighbours across the street.

So this artist dips it into hot water

to make it soft.

And then he bends it...

Monika Bincsik and others have become part of our family,

in a sense, as we have become part of the Met family.

In 2017, Monika and the Abbeys staged a Met exhibition

that showed bamboo as no niche interest.

We had over 430,000 people... visitors.

We were speechless, really.

We didn't have really any idea about the quality,

we knew it was terrific, but we...we were not...

It was just for us.

We did it because we loved it.

We feel that it's only fair for the world to see them.

It's like what you do with your children.

Well, you have them only for a certain period of time.

And then you're... And out they go.

On October 29th, About Time opens.

The annual Costume Institute exhibition is still a big draw.

New York has always been America's fashion capital.

The faithful turn out in droves for Andrew Bolton's costume drama.

The Met Gala was cancelled so the, like, the exhibition is very, very anticipated.

I mean, it's the best for costuming, it's the best for fashion.

Keith Prewitt, Head of Security, makes his own fashion statement.

I've always attributed the way that that I dress

to my time in the Secret Service.

When you're with the President and Vice President of the United States

you have to be dressed accordingly, so...

So you were one of the men in black?

Yes, I was. Or navy blue or Cambridge grey.

This is the fall edition.

Change is the engine of the modern fashion industry.

Andrew Bolton's exhibition invites contemplation of things eternal.

It's been really cool to see people really getting deep into

observing the comparisons.

And then they come through this way,

and they sort of are amazed by the mirrored room.

To see the reflection of the pieces on the ceiling

and experiencing each piece in three dimensions was really extraordinary.

Somehow the Met manages to show clothing

and show fashion in a new way each time.

Just the space is so beautiful

and just really like a treat for your eyes, you know?

I feel like it's a nice...little bit of escapism right now.

Every year is always inspiring, innovative.

Like, mind blown every single time.

We're so excited to see this exhibit

and unfortunately we did not get in. The guard did not let us in.

We tried so hard. It was sold out. We want to see all the art and fashion.

And we love clothing and fashion.

And it's like the only thing to do in New York City right now, so...

Yeah, there's not really much going on. Everything is... There is nothing else going on.

Everything's banned, we can't go out after ten o'clock.

At the end of October, the streets around the museum turn ghoulish.

It's Halloween.

The Met pumpkin,

like the Great Hall floral display that changes every week,

is provided for in perpetuity by a single bequest.

The financial structures, tax write-offs

and corporate sponsorships that keep the whole art sector afloat

might be about to change.

The Met was founded on philanthropy.

Citizens from every income group have given what they can,

in cash and in kind.

The upcoming election might bring a new administration

or return the old one.

At present, all it delivers is anxiety.

No-one really knows what's going to happen

in one of the greatest elections in American history.

And the consequences of one outcome or the other are seismic.

And I would maintain that we're not partisan, but we are political.

Political in the sense that what politics ultimately is about

is who gets what.

The Met has money worries,

but is wealthy compared to smaller institutions.

Some industries have received a Covid bailout,

but there's been little for the arts.

On November 3rd, America goes to the polls.

Communications chief, Ken Weine, and his wife, Barbara,

join the rest of America by the television.

There was a line about six people deep at the liquor store tonight.

I do think that it's an obsession for people this year.

I am hopeful that it will be decided by 11 o'clock tonight.

Jeremy, our son, thinks Friday at the earliest.

Barbara will not engage.

The stakes are really high for New York City.

The economic impact on the pandemic is everywhere.

What that means for the cultural institutions across the city

is devastating.

When you read the paper and the Germans threw billions of euros at the arts world,

and that's not going to happen in the United States, regardless of who wins tonight.

It really exposes the American model of funding of cultural institutions.

We fund our museums, our hospitals, our universities

through private philanthropy.

And, OK, what's going to happen now?

This isn't said out of worry of what will happen to the Met,

the Met will continue to be a strong, important institution.

But what that means for the dance company in Staten Island

or the small museum in The Bronx, that writ large across the country,

it's really challenging.

It's not hyperbole when you see the historians

and the commentators on TV saying this is the most important election in our lifetimes,

if not the, you know, modern history of America.

I just this afternoon was going back and forth,

should I send a note to our department saying...

"I won't cross any partisan lines here.

"Sending strength to each of you, and to our city and nation,

"as we get ready for whatever this next chapter will bring."

But, look, we're New Yorkers, we've both lived here for 30 years-ish. Yeah. Right?

We are very much of a bubble here where people pretty much

are all on the same team.

We've been through intense elections, but...

nothing compares to what our city

and country is going through right now.

7.15, we have so long to go!

Three days later, Ken Weine has no fingernails left to chew on.

Having all waited months and months for the election,

sure enough here we are and the counts are still going on.

The news is kind of coming at us in many different ways.

The virus is raging again.

We had this news alert that Pfizer, a vaccine - that's great.

But you got to think, for this museum to be working to the capacity

it needs to, how long is that going to take?

You know, the Met is a place where we plan things,

you know, we have 40 exhibitions.

An exhibition takes three to five years for its gestation process.

But we don't know what's going to happen...

days ahead of us right now.

What makes this environment so challenging,

it's not necessarily "did my candidate win or lose?"

it's that uncertainty, I think, is wearing on people.

And we have just unending uncertainty right now.

The Met holds art from five millennia.

Objects that have seen pestilence and upheaval.

Taking the long view comes naturally to Dan Weiss.

The Egyptians left so many records.

There is so much papyrus material that survives.

I'm trained as a medievalist and a classicist

and I tend to gravitate towards that material.

There's something really powerful about the history

of the Egyptian civilisation, that it endured for three millennia.

Three millennia!

The American experiment is now at 250 years.

I think at this moment in our history in 2020,

the American question is open.

With all of the advances that we have made in technology

and science, what we have done with that knowledge

and that insight is, I think, disappointing.

That as we stand in this museum surrounded by the history

of great civilisations that have come and gone,

ours is more advantaged, more progressive,

more informed than any other in history.

But thus far, it's an open question

as to how long we'll endure and what we'll do with our knowledge

and, at the moment, it's hard to say.

REPORTER: CBS News and we are coming on the air with breaking news...

On November 7th comes resolution.

CBS News projects that Joe Biden has been elected

the 46th President of the United States.

HORNS BEEPING, CHEERING

In New York, they're dancing in the streets.

But in many states, citizens feel cheated and aggrieved.

At the Met, Director Max Hollein

is with Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm.

I just find it absolutely breathtaking.

And I still remember when I was a young kid

and came first to the Met from Vienna, Austria,

it was an even bigger canvas back then when I was a small child.

The collection is, of course, what excites us,

and what excites every curator to be part of this institution.

In the Musical Instruments Department,

Jayson Dobney shares that excitement,

and a Met Stradivarius, with musician Mariella Haubs.

PLAYS STRADIVARIUS

Already in the last year or two we've focused on

recontextualizing our collection

and we'll be even more prioritised now coming out of this crisis.

The Met is now 150 years and eight months old.

For Dan Weiss, it's been a year to remember.

My job as a leader, to be surrounded by people of such great talent,

dedication, who love this place as they do, is inspiring.

The President and the Director are about to change the museum for good.

The movement for Black Lives Matter

and all the questions of social justice, and against discrimination

and against racism, has a lot to do, for sure, with how this institution

is being staffed, and how we act as an institution in the community.

But it also has to do about not only what we show,

but also how we show it and what kind of context we provide.

I think it is a remarkable moment for us,

this moment of Covid and Black Lives Matter,

and political distress all in this country at the same time.

Whatever comes next, only time will tell.

But I think we all recognise this is a turning point.