Presentation casket

Josef Ritter von Storck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The presentation casket to Empress Elizabeth (1937–1898), wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, was made to contain 70 photographs, showing the stands of all the Austrian exhibitors at the Paris International Exposition in 1867. Elizabeth had intended to pay an official visit to the exhibition in order to admire the Austrian contribution, but was prevented by ill health from doing so, and the pictures were made as a souvenir.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art