Two years ago almost to the day, on January 16, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City reopened the “American Wing” to the public after a decade-long restoration that included recreating the original frame for the “best-known painting in America’s best-known museum”: Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Measuring 12 ft. 5 in. by 21 ft. 3 in., it was painted in 1851 by the German born artist, Emmanuel Leutze, in his studio in Dusseldorf Germany. It entered the Met’s collection in 1897 after a much storied journey of its own, as told in the Met’s booklet: Washington Crossing the Delaware: Restoring an American Masterpiece. Read more