Considered by many experts as the best art museum in the world the Louvre displays a grand total of 38,000 artworks. Some of the most significant masterpieces hang on its walls, including Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", the most famous painting in the world.
With ease one of the supreme museums in the world "the Met" houses more than two million works of art from all over the globe. As unmissable highlights, we recommend the fantastic collection of European Paintings and the extensive Egyptian art holdings including the Temple of Dendur from 10 BCE.
Founded in 1764 and featuring more than 400 exhibit halls, the Hermitage Museum is one of the world's oldest, biggest, and certainly greatest art collections, presented in spectacular connected palaces. Highlights of the art collection include the stunning Peacock Clock by James Cox as well masterpieces of painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, and world-famous sculptures by Antonio Canova and Michelangelo.
Highlights of this unparalleled religious art museum include a suite of rooms frescoed by Raphael (including the masterpiece “The School of Athens”), Caravaggio’s “Entombment”, the spectacular ceiling of the Gallery of Maps, the double spiral staircase (Bramante Staircase) and — of course — the glorious Sistine Chapel, painted 1508-1541.
This UNESCO-enlisted world-class museum hosts the greatest collection of Italian paintings in the world and was built in Late Renaissance style by Giorgio Vasari circa 1560. Marvel at masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Caravaggio.
Europe's greatest impressionist and post-impressionist paintings collection is housed in a gorgeously renovated former railway station built in 1900 on the left bank of the River Seine. The museum displays some of the greatest artworks by Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Édouard Manet.
Founded in 1753 this world-class museum, dedicated to human history and culture, is one of London's best free attractions with an impressive collection of more than seven million objects from all over the globe. Highlights include the fabulous Elgin Marbles (originally part of the Parthenon in Athens), the colossal horse from Halikarnassos, the world-famous Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo mask, the Lewis Chessmen, and an Easter Island statue.
Widely considered one of the greatest art museums in the world, the Prado holds numerous masterpieces among its 1,500 displayed works in more than one hundred rooms. The museum’s collection of Spanish artists, including Goya, El Greco, da Ribera, and Velázquez, is considered the best in the world.
Situated at Trafalgar Square the National Gallery features one of the world’s greatest collections of 13th to 19th-century Western European paintings. Among the highlights of this free museum are masterpieces by Van Eyck, Velázquez, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bronzino, Van Gogh, da Vinci, Seurat, and Holbein the Younger.
The world-class Egyptian Museum is (for now still) home to the world's largest and most impressive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts including the famous Tutankhamun exhibition. With its most famed objects going to the highly anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum in 2022, this museum will be less impressive in the future.
Bilbao's architectural showpiece by the famous Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry still looks incredibly modern even if it was inaugurated back in 1997. The Guggenheim Museum, one of the world's most spectacular buildings that you should appreciate from all angles, contains a collection of 20th-century American and European art and temporary exhibitions of modern art.
This famous museum in Midtown Manhattan displays significant works of modern and contemporary art. Among the highlights of the collection are masterpieces by Van Gogh (“Starry-Night”), Picasso (“Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”), Signac (“Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon”), Chagall (“I and the Village”) or Henri Rousseau (“The Sleeping Gypsy”).
Opened in 1973, this museum contains the largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh in the world. Among the two hundred paintings on display are some of van Gogh's most famous works.
The Art Institute of Chicago is considered one of the best art museums in North America with a collection spanning 5,000 years from all over the world. The outstanding permanent collection consists mainly of impressionist and post-impressionist work.
Considered one of the great art museums of Europe Vienna’s Museum of Art History houses the outstanding former private collection of the Imperial family in a splendid purpose-built building lavishly decorated with marble, stucco embellishments, and gold-leaf.
The recently successfully modernized Rijksmuseum displays a world-class collection in a beautiful historical building. Among its 8,000 works, visitors will find famous paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn or Johannes Vermeer.
This excellent and unique museum, located on Museum Island on the River Spree its famous due to its extraordinary historical reconstructions on an exceptionally large scale. Highlights include the massive marble Pergamon Altar (which is closed due to renovation until 2023), the giant blue Ishtar Gate, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Umayyad Palace of Mshatta.
The Gemäldegallerie holds a remarkable and immense collection of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries in seventy-two rooms.
This late 19th-century building is home to an exquisite collection of ancient and classical Greek artifacts. Key exhibits include the highly fascinating and intriguing Antikythera mechanism (the first known analog computer [150-100 BCE]), the golden mask of Agamemnon (1550–1500 BCE), and the stunning bronze age wall paintings of ancient Thera, Santorini (1700 BCE).
Museo Archeologico Nazionale is, without a doubt, one of the finest archaeological museums in the world, housing an immense collection of ancient artifacts, mainly from nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum such as the famous Rooms of the Temple of Isis.
In the twenty elegant rooms of this beautiful Baroque mansion, you can admire outstanding marble sculptures from artists such as Canova and Bernini as well as world-famous paintings from Correggio, Titian, Raphael, and Caravaggio. Only 360 people are allowed to visit the museum at once, therefore you'll need to pre-book tickets well in advance.
Commissioned in the 15th century by the banker Luca Pitti, this immense Renaissance palace — arguably the most impressive building in Florence — became the main residence of the Florentine rulers in the 16th century and now houses six different museums in its lavishly decorated rooms. The most impressive of the Pitti's galleries, the Galleria Palatina, displays over 500 paintings from the private Medici collection including famous works by Raphael, Titian, Rubens, and Caravaggio.
The world-famous Terracotta Army – a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 – is an enormous collection of ca. 8,000 life-size Terracotta sculptures in battle formations. The Terracotta Museum consists currently of four main pits (No. 4 is empty) as well as the Hall of the two bronze chariots and horses.
Affectionately known as the V&A this huge museum of decorative art objects represents more than 3,000 years of human creativity. The outstanding free permanent collection contains over 4.5 million objects, predominantly furniture, ceramics, photography, sculpture, silver, ironwork, jewelry, and paintings.
Housed inside a Gothic palazzo, the Bargello National Museum is home to a fabulous collection of Renaissance sculptures including famous masterpieces in marble or bronze by Michelangelo, Donatello, Giambologna, and Cellini.
