The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) provides a publicly accessible API (MET API). My analysis focused on examining the museum’s art accession (collection) activities and comparing the differences between East Asian countries—Korea, China, and Japan. The goal was to identify trends and specific areas, such as classification categories, where each country exhibited distinct statistics.

 

Data collection in Alteryx

To build the dataset, I used Alteryx to parse and unify data from three separate country-specific searches.

1. Extracting Data

   • Used the Download Tool and JSON Parse Tool to retrieve and structure the data in a tabular format.
   • Applied the Filter Tool to remove invalid or incomplete records.

2. Processing & Structuring

   • Split the Classification column into subcategories to create a hierarchical structure for later analysis.
     

3. Unifying the Dataset

   • Built three identical workflows, one for each country.
   • Used the Join Tool and Union Tool to merge the datasets while eliminating duplicates.
     

At the end of 3 identical workflow for each country, I used join tool and union tool to have a unified dataset without any duplicated data.

 

Artifacts Collection Trend

The MET Museum possesses approximately 47,000 artifacts from three East Asian countries: Korea, China, and Japan. Public domain artifacts are freely accessible to the public, and the museum has designated some notable pieces as “Highlights.” There are 247 highlighted artifacts from these East Asian countries.

The museum has been collecting art since 1879, with more than 60% of these pieces acquired before the 1950s. Periodic peaks in acquisitions suggest that, at certain times, the museum had access to larger supplies of art from specific sources.

 

 

Collected artifacts distribution over years

The museum’s collection of East Asian artifacts dates back to 12,000 BCE. Over time, they have successfully acquired a diverse range of artifacts from various historical periods. The bar chart reveals peaks in acquisitions, indicating periods when the museum had opportunities to obtain a significant number of artifacts from the same source.

 

 

Difference between East Asian countries

The MET has acquired a variety of ceramics from Korea and China, as well as prints and woven textiles from Japan, primarily from the 1700s, collected between the 1890s and 1930s. Additionally, a significant number of sword fittings, including Tsuba and Kozuka from the 1590s, were added to the museum’s collection between the 1920s and 1940s.

 

 

If you’re interested, check out my dashboard at the link below:

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/don3154/viz/EastAsianArtsintheMET/EastAsia