Playing an essential cultural role, galleries and museums are indispensable when it comes to preserving and celebrating great artists, from Old Masters to contemporary trailblazers. While any idea of 'the best' is highly subjective when it comes to art, we've narrowed down some of the most prestigious places across the globe in which the art world's most celebrated treasures can be found.
Read on to discover where you can view the greatest art around the world...
As the name would suggest the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated solely to the works of Vincent van Gogh. The museum has 1,300 pieces of Van Gogh’s art including Sunflowers, Self-Portrait and The Potato Eaters as well as letters and drawings. The core of the collection was donated by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the painter's nephew.
The museum features works from other artists such as Paul Gauguin, Odilon Redon and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec too.
A former power station, the twisted pyramid brick building was transformed into the Tate Modern in 2000. It houses the national collection of British art from the 1900s onwards and has one of the largest collections of Surrealist art in the world, with Dali’s Forgotten Horizon one of its most important works.
The adjacent Turbine Hall is a vast and dramatic space used for large-scale exhibitions and site-specific installation art from artists such as Ai Weiwei and Marina Abramović.
The oldest in our selection, the Vatican Museums opened in 1506 and are now a vast series of galleries, papal villas and gardens that span almost nine miles (14.5km) and house over 70,000 works. The pinnacle of all the astonishing artworks to be found in this collection has to be the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.
Michelangelo started the frescoes in 1508, finished them in 1512 and then came back in 1533 to paint The Last Judgement on the altar wall. The four rooms painted by Raphael are also open to the public.
The National Art Center was founded in 2007 and is set in one of the swishest neighbourhoods in Tokyo, Roppongi. This unique museum doesn’t have a permanent collection – it only hosts exhibitions. There's a regularly changing programme of Artist Associations' Exhibitions while the next major exhibition will be LIVING Modernity: Experiments in the Exceptional and Everyday 1920s-1970s from March 2025.
The futuristic building itself is surrounded by cherry blossom trees, which thousands come to wonder at when they're in full bloom.
Salts Mill, founded in 1853 by Sir Titus Salt, houses the largest collection of David Hockney’s works in the world. The ground floor is home to the permanent exhibition of Hockney’s paintings while Gallery 2 hosts regularly changing temporary exhibitions. There’s also a gallery dedicated to the history of the mill and on the third floor is the newly opened Peace Museum.
The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil is set in one of the best examples of Neoclassical architecture in the historic centre of Rio de Janeiro. One of the most important cultural institutions in Brazil, it has three theatres, a cinema and multiple art galleries. The building is set in glorious juxtaposition to some of the modern high rises that surround it.
The museum has other locations in capital Brasília, as well as Belo Horizonte and São Paulo.
Set in the eighth busiest train station in the world, this gallery has no permanent collection so it brings in exhibitions from Japan and around the world. The gallery is located in the handsome red brick Marunouchi building right in the centre of Tokyo.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence has a magnificent array of art. It opened in 1580, which makes it one of the oldest museums in the world. Today, it holds the finest collection of art from the Italian Renaissance, including masterpieces like The Birth of Venus by Botticelli and Caravaggio’s Medusa, as well as works from Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
The original building that now forms part of the Uffizi complex was built for the powerful House of Medici.
The Metropolitan Museum Of Art is one of the largest museums in the world. It has over two million individual pieces of art spanning 5,000 years of art history. It holds paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Turner, Monet and Van Gogh as well as musical instruments, sculpture and decorative arts.
Founded in 1870 to make art and education accessible to Americans, the museum is also home to the world’s oldest piano, made by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who's credited with inventing the instrument.
The Getty Centre was founded by oil baron J. Paul Getty to house his massive collection of art. It's one of the two LA locations of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the other being the Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades. The Getty Center sits on top of a hill in Brentwood and is accessed by a cable car and has stunning views of Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.
The collection includes works from Rembrandt, Turner and Van Gogh.
The Musée d’Orsay specialises in 19th- and 20th-century art. It has the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world. Located 10 minutes from the Louvre, the museum is housed in a former railway station, making its vaulted main atrium with its glass ceiling one of the best exhibition halls in the world.
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and largest museums in North America. The massive lion statues that stand guard at the front of the museum have become symbolic of the museum. Specialising in Impressionist and post-Impressionist artists, the museum's collection includes over 30 paintings by Monet.
The museum is also world-renowned for its conservation work on paintings, objects, photography, books, frames and paper.
The Prado Museum, also known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the national art museum of Spain. Located in Madrid and opened in 1819, it houses the most extensive collection of Spanish art from the 12th to the 19th centuries and holds the largest collection of Francisco De Goya’s masterpieces on display over three floors. It also has over one thousand drawings, prints and documents by the Spanish master.
The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall in Washington DC near the United States Capitol. Founded in 1937 and opened in 1941, the gallery has a collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and drawings.
The gallery comprises two buildings, the West Building, modelled after the Roman Pantheon, and the East Building, designed by modernist architect I.M. Pei. It also has an amazing sculpture garden set around a large fountain that becomes an ice rink during winter.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, or MMCA, in Seoul opened in 2013. It has three other branches, each focusing on a different aspect of art. The Seoul museum features mostly modern and contemporary Korean and international art. Because of its location in heavily urbanised central Seoul, it's located 63 feet (19m) underground with a minimalist design above ground.
The galleries are divided by courtyards and, uniquely, there are multiple entrances to the museum, so the onus is on the visitor to figure out how best to see the museum.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam showcases 800 years of Dutch history within a global context, from the Golden Age of Dutch cultural creation to Indonesia’s struggle for independence from colonialism. In the popular Gallery of Honour you’ll find works by the most celebrated Dutch artists of the 17th century including Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rachel Ruysch.
MALBA, also known as the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, is considered one of the cornerstones of the contemporary Latin American art scene. Opened in 2001, it is run by a not-for-profit foundation and has become a Buenos Aires cultural icon. Its permanent collection includes paintings from Frida Kahlo and Jorge de la Vega.
The current temporary exhibitions are Cao Fei - The future is not a dream and Tunga - Me, you and the moon, both running until 17 February 2025.
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico is located in a beautiful colonnade building that used to be the San Juan Municipal Hospital. It prides itself on having the best events calendar and exhibitions on the contemporary arts scene, hosting workshops and talks nearly every night.
With more than 21 exhibition halls, the museum's delights can be sampled from the outside too – the main façade welcomes visitors with an imposing mural in Chinese ink by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Díaz.
The National Gallery of Victoria is Australia’s oldest public art museum. Opened in 1861, it currently holds over 75,000 items in its collection, spanning the history and development of Australian, Indigenous and international art, design and architecture. The museum has also recently announced a partnership with the Victorian State Government to build Australia’s largest contemporary art gallery, NGV Contemporary.
Despite its location 22 miles (35km) from Copenhagen, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is the most visited art museum in Denmark. Founded in 1958, the small villa has been extended seven times, adding glass corridors that connect each of the art galleries to better display its extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.
Its unusual name is not a reference to the US state nearly 5,000 miles (8,000km) away, but rather to the first owner of the property, Alexander Brun, who named the villa after his three wives, all called Louise.
Designed by Oscar Niemeyer – a well-known Brazilian architect who was key to the development of modern architecture – the museum sits underneath a reflecting pool that sheds light onto the building. The 60-foot-tall (18m) structure is accessed by a 322-foot (98m) red-carpeted ramp and took five years to build.
The museum showcases the private collection of João Sattamini, a private Brazilian collector, who has amassed one of the largest private collections of worldwide and Brazilian contemporary art in the world.
The museum, simply known as The Guggenheim, was founded in 1939 by Solomon R. Guggenheim, a New York mining magnate. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s conical white spirals have become as famous as the art inside and the museum was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.
Today, it holds over 6,000 pieces of modern and contemporary art in its permanent collection and has one of the largest collections of Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings in the world.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Bangkok exhibits the private collection of Boonchai Bencharongkul, a Thai telecommunications mogul. The museum houses the most complete collection of modern paintings and sculptures by Thailand’s best young contemporary artists. It also has some special exhibitions on banknotes and Ramayana masks.
Opened in 1962, the Hong Kong Museum of Art was the first publicly accessible art gallery in Hong Kong. Its 17,000-strong collection covers a broad spectrum of art, including Asian and Western paintings and sculptures. The collection also features Chinese antiquities and has works by Wu Guanzhong, widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese painting.
The museum underwent a massive refurbishment in November 2019 and a new annexe was added to exhibit more of the permanent collection.
Set in a traditionally styled Chinese building, the National Art Museum of China is one of the biggest museums in the country. Set across six floors and 21 exhibition halls, the museum holds more than 110,000 pieces, including the only national collection of plastic arts. The collections range from Chinese painting and caricatures to folk costumes, pottery and porcelain. The museum is free to visit.
The National Gallery was founded in 1824 to house the UK’s collection of Western European paintings from the 13th to the early 20th century. Its location in Trafalgar Square makes it one of the most visited galleries in the world. Almost all of its 2,300 works of art are on permanent display, offering an encyclopaedic look into the development of Western painting.
The collection includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Van Gogh.
The treasure troves that are the Royal Museums of Art and History rival the collections of the Louvre and Rijksmuseum. It's a collection of four individual museums – the Art & History Museum, Musical Instruments Museum, Halle Gate and Museum of the Far East – holding a combined collection of over 20,000 items.
The range of art on display is incredible, from Merovingian dynasty artefacts to floor mosaics from Apamea, Syria, and Egyptian sarcophagi.
Commissioned at the end of the 19th century to house the huge art collection belonging to the Habsburgs (Austria's royal family), the Kunsthistorisches Museum or Museum of Art History is one of the most important art museums in the world.
In addition to its formidable collection of fine paintings and sculptures, the palatial building is topped with a 197-foot (60m) octagonal dome and is lavishly decorated inside with marble, stucco (fine plaster) ornaments and gold leaf.
Inspired by ancient Islamic architecture, most notably, the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, Doha's Museum of Islamic Art overlooks the Arabian Gulf and holds an extensive collection of Islamic art spanning more than 1,400 years. The geometric building is made of cream-coloured limestone and features a high-domed atrium with a central tower.
It is hard to argue that the famous Louvre isn’t the best art museum in the world, housing probably the most famous painting in the entire world, the Mona Lisa. The Louvre Museum opened in 1793 and has been constantly added to and remodelled since. One of the biggest revamps happened in the 1980s when a vast underground space of offices, galleries, shops and restaurants was added.
Its remarkable collection of paintings represents all periods of European art up until 1848. Artwork after this period was transferred to the Musée d’Orsay in 1968.