The Byzantine Galleries Reinstalled

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reopened its Byzantine galleries, Galleries 300 to 303, in a reinstallation completed in April 2026 as part of the Museum's Great Hall Project. Surrounding the Great Hall stairs, the galleries display art of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire centered in Constantinople from the fourth through fifteenth centuries, drawn from one of the most comprehensive collections of Late Antique and Byzantine art in the world. New casework anchors the transformation, with redesigned displays for the gold and silver vessels of the Attarouthi and Avar Treasures and for related Frankish material, encouraging comparative study across regions. A new east Christian case in Gallery 300 brings into view works that had largely remained in storage, presenting manuscripts, icons and liturgical textiles that trace the persistence of Byzantine traditions beyond the fall of Constantinople in 1453, with regular object rotations planned. Organized under Andrea Myers Achi, the Mary and Michael Jaharis Associate Curator of Byzantine Art, the reinstallation was shaped through direct engagement with living faith communities, including members of St. Antonious and St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church and students and faculty from Saint Nersess Armenian Seminary, alongside new research supported by Met fellowships into eastern Mediterranean glass and Coptic monasticism.