The Cloisters - John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Gift to the Met

The Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park was assembled and funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's holdings of medieval European art and architecture. Rockefeller purchased medieval cloister elements, financed construction, and donated the completed museum to the Met; the Cloisters opened to the public in 1938. The site preserves transplanted architectural elements and artworks interpreted as a single medieval-style complex in northern Manhattan.