Astor Court

Story

The Astor Court, located in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a re-creation of a Ming Dynasty-style, Chinese-garden courtyard.The first permanent cultural exchange between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China, the installation was completed in 1981. Conceived by museum trustee Brooke Astor, the courtyard was created and assembled by expert craftsmen from China using traditional methods, materials and hand tools.OriginThe design of the museum's Chinese garden is "based on a small courtyard within a scholar's garden in the city of Suzhou, China, called Wang Shi Yuan, the Garden of the Master of the Fishing Nets." Statements by officials of the museum credit Astor with the idea for the installation, stating that she recalled such gardens from a period of her childhood spent in Beijing, China, "and thought that such a court would be ideal as the focal point for the permanent installation of Far Eastern art." The museum had purchased a collection of Ming Dynasty domestic furniture in 1976 with funds in part from the Vincent Astor Foundation. The hall adjacent to the courtyard and architecturally unified with it was created to provide a suitable space to display this collection.