Coronavirus Outbreak: Met Gala 2020 Postponed By Metropolitan Museum Of Art TIll Further Notice

The annual Met Gala, the fashion party which benefits the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, will not be held on its scheduled date of May 4.

Met Gala co-chair and Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour shared the news in her Monday column for the magazine.

"Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, 'About Time', and the opening night gala, will not take place on the date scheduled," Wintour wrote.

A new date has not been set.

This year's theme for the gala was "About Time: Fashion and Duration". The likes of Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Louis Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere were set as the hosts for the event.

According to the museum's website, the exhibit was set to be open from May 7 to September 7 and explore "how clothes generate temporal associations that conflate the past, present, and future" from 1870 to the present.

Last week, the Met announced that its museums -- The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer and The Met Cloisters -- would be closed temporarily starting Friday "to support New York City's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19".

The COVID-19 has led to almost complete shutdown of Hollywood film industry.

The virus, which originated in China's Wuhan city, was declared pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO) last week.