Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Unlike the treasures of European museums, accumulated during centuries of royal patronage and plunder, the Metropolitan's vast collection reflects the tastes and resources of only a handful of remarkable nineteenth- and twentieth-century individuals, including J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Philip and Robert Lehman, who developed, along with their millions, a taste for immortality through art. Blending anecdote with lively social history, Calvin Tomkins reveals the ideas, personalities, and financial power behind the Metropolitan's dramatic climb to greatness. His story is nothing less than the story of art in America.