One early morning of an exceptionally beautiful day I got the idea of retracing every step of my life as an art expert--from 1951--and writing down the works of art that had bowled me over visually and emotionally. The ones that after years I could describe down to the tiniest details, as if standing in front of them. These are the ones that changed my lifeO So begins Thomas Hoving--the man who revolutionized the Metropolitan Museum of Art and with it the museums of the world--in this sumptuous book that contains his passionate, opinionated, and sometimes controversial selection of the 111 masterpieces of Western art. Encompassing classical Greek statuary, paintings by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Renoir, Munch, and Pollack, frescoes by Piero Della Francesca, mosaics, altarpieces, tapestries, even Benvenuto Cellini's "Great Salt Cellar, " this book takes a fresh, engaging look at Western man's artistic accomplishments. Interpreted with wit, zeal, and passion, "The Greatest Works of Art" includes treasures from the Museum of Modern Art, the Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, and of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art."