The facade of NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art has never been fully finished

It sure seems like a completed structure at first glance. But look closer. Specifically, look at the piles of stone blocks stacked on top of the columns.

Those blocks were hauled up there during construction—around the turn of the 20th century. They were supposed to be carved into sculptures representing "Music", "Architecture", "Painting" and, ironically, "Sculpture". Instead, the stone has sat there for 110 years, through two major renovations, un-carved and largely ignored.

The Daytonian in Manhattan blog has the full story on this.

Via Amy Vernon

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Angryjim

strange that they were put up there at all if unfinished. The sculptor wouldn’t be expected to do the work way up there right? You’d think they’d be sculpted in a studio and lifted into place..
- EvilSpirit
  
  I would imagine there’d be some risk of damaging the sculptures if you did it that way.
tom.race

Oxford University Museum has some windows carved, some not. There was a dispute with the stonemasons, and it remains incomplete. http://www.placesonline.com/europe/united_kingdom/england/oxford/photo_detail.asp?filename=23299_oxford_university_museum_oxford
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

I know a woman in Spain who would love a shot at completing the sculptures.
knoxblox

Shhhh! Don’t let Cecilia Gimenez know about this…
- Bobsyeruncle
  
  Well, I for one think the museum would look awesome with a couple of Pasqual Pinon gargoyles staring down.
xzzy

They should do what my elementary school did when I was in second grade.. get kids to paint (or in this case, sculpt out of clay) an image, have a round of judging and voting done by the kids, and the winners got their art enlarged and painted onto the walls of the gym for decoration.
Shinkuhadoken

Clearly it’s a tribute to unrealized potential.
- Jorpho
  
  Unshelved books, perhaps?
http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

I kind of like them. It’s an “art” thing. Fitting.
- retepslluerb
  
  Just imagine that the statutes are simply hidden in the stone.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=660014415 Mark Drop

Just noticed those blocks in July on my last visit – I thought it was some sort of sly comment – almost like Michelangelo’s slaves left half uncarved.
Halloween_Jack

They can carve ‘em up after the stonemasons finish the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Rene Torres

thanks.