Abstract
The article investigates the sale of the landmark painting "The Slave Ship," by English landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It founds that the painting was bought by the museum's first president John Taylor Johnston and it was on public view in the city from April 11, 1872 in Johnston's private gallery. It noted that the painting's presence in the museum has been missed out by most scholars because it was a late addition in the catalogue. Highlights of how Johnston acquired the painting is also provided.