Look world - if you don't want to foster American arrogance, quit lending us your best stuff.
Yesterday I was able to see probably the greatest one-place collection of Byzantine icons in history - and it was only a train ride (two if you count the subway) away. Do yourself a favor and go.
And when you do - pay less to get in (they let you pay anything) and instead pay the $6 for the audio-tour. It works for anything in the Met with a number on it - you just punch in the number, press play, and hear a brief discussion of the piece. The reason I didn't get one before was because I considered such things for the "uneducated." That was stupid.