NEW YORK, NY.- In 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired, by gift and purchase, more than 400 works of Japanese art from collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914-1991). This daring acquisition instantly transformed the Museum into an institution with one of the finest collections of its kind in the West, comprised of encyclopedic holdings from the Neolithic period through the 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the acquisition with the installation Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from Packard Collection, opening December 17. Featuring more than 220 works, it will showcase the collection’s particular strengths in archaeological artifacts, Buddhist iconographic scrolls, screen paintings of the Momoyama and Edo periods (16th—19th century), and sculptures of the Heian and Kamakura periods (ninth—14th century), as well as a comprehensive selection of ceramics. Some