of Native American art will be headed for the American Wing, marking a historic change in the way art is curated at New York’s most famous museum.

Promised Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker // Photo: Dirk Bakker A medicine vision by an unrecorded Arapaho artist -- attributed to “Henderson Ledger Artist A,” also known as Horseback (unknown dates) -- ca. 1880 in Oklahoma.

In the past, Native American art has been housed in The Met’s Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas galleries, a section that spans 3,000 years, three continents and several islands. According to The New York Times, this was a bit confusing to international patrons who were accustomed to seeing indigenous art displayed as part of their own national narratives.

“They go through [the American Wing] andthese works, The Met will be able to offer a much richer history of the art of North America, one that will include critical perspectives on our past and represent diverse and enduring native artistic traditions.”

Promised Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker // Photo: Dirk Bakker A basket bowl by Louisa Keyser, also known as Datsolalee (ca. 1829–1925), made in 1907 in Nevada.

Back in 2013, Katherine Abu Hadal made a strong case for why the curation of Native American art matters. In a piece titled “Why Native American Art Doesn’t Belong in the American Museum of Natural History,” she argued that work by Native American artists deserves just as much respect as Greek and Roman artifacts.

“When Native American, Pacific, and African art and artifact is lumped in with