photograph The Pond-Moonlight (of which another copy was already in the Met's collection) for a record price of $2.9 million. One of the most serious challenges to the Metropolitan Museum's reputation has been a series of allegations and lawsuits about its status as an institutional buyer of looted and stolen antiquities. Since the 1990s the Met has been the subject of numerous investigative reports and books critical of the Met's laissez-faire attitude to acquisition. The Met has lost several major lawsuits, notably against the governments of Italy and Turkey, which successfully sought the repatriation of hundreds of ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern antiquities, with a total value in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In August 2022, it was reported that the Cambodian government was pressuring the museum to return Khmer artifacts that were allegedly looted during civil war and the tumultuous period following. In September 2022, law enforcement seized 27 artifacts highlighting ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, with the intention of returning them to Italy and Egypt. Selected objects Selected paintings See also List of most-visited art museums List of most-visited museums in the United States References Footnotes Citations Sources Danziger, Danny (2007). Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Viking. . Howe, Winifred E., and Henry Watson Kent (2009). A History of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. General Books, Memphis. . Tompkins, Calvin (1989). Merchants & Masterpieces: The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Henry Holt and Company, New York. . Trask, Jeffrey (2012). Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ; A history that relates it the political context of the Progressive Era. Further reading Vogel, Carol, "Grand Galleries for National Treasures", January 5; and Holland Cotter, "The Met Reimagines the American Story", review, January 15; two 2012 New York Times articles about American painting and sculpture galleries reopening after four-year renovation. External links The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a Timeline of Art History Chronological list of special exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital Collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries Watsonline: The Catalog of the Libraries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art Digital Collections (annual reports, collection catalogs, exhibit catalogs, etc.) Artwork owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art at Wikipedia's GLAM initiative Virtual tour of the