Top Museums

20 collections that define a civilisation

Hand-picked masterworks of human culture — from the Louvre to the Topkapı, with everything in between.

Louvre
#1

Louvre

Paris, France

World's most-visited museum, from the Mona Lisa to the Code of Hammurabi.

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British Museum
#2

British Museum

London, United Kingdom

Two million years of human history under one Bloomsbury roof.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art
#3

Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, United States

Five thousand years of art on the edge of Central Park.

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Vatican Museums
#4

Vatican Museums

Vatican City, Vatican City

Papal collections culminating in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

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State Hermitage Museum
#5

State Hermitage Museum

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Catherine the Great's empire of art across six baroque buildings.

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Uffizi Gallery
#6

Uffizi Gallery

Florence, Italy

The Renaissance in one building — Botticelli, Caravaggio, da Vinci.

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Prado Museum
#7

Prado Museum

Madrid, Spain

Velázquez, Goya, El Greco — Spanish royal collection at full volume.

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National Gallery
#8

National Gallery

London, United Kingdom

Western European painting from the 13th to the 20th century.

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Rijksmuseum
#9

Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Vermeer, Rembrandt, and the soul of the Dutch Golden Age.

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Musée d'Orsay
#10

Musée d'Orsay

Paris, France

Impressionism inside a converted Belle Époque railway station.

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Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
#11

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

New York, United States

Van Gogh's Starry Night, Picasso's Demoiselles, the modern canon.

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Tate Modern
#12

Tate Modern

London, United Kingdom

A power station turned global temple of contemporary art.

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Acropolis Museum
#13

Acropolis Museum

Athens, Greece

Glass-floored temple to the Parthenon's marbles, in their hometown.

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Egyptian Museum
#14

Egyptian Museum

Cairo, Egypt

Tutankhamun's gold mask and 120,000 years of pharaonic Egypt.

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National Museum of Anthropology
#15

National Museum of Anthropology

Mexico City, Mexico

Aztec sun stone, Mayan jade, the deepest pre-Columbian collection.

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National Gallery of Art
#16

National Gallery of Art

Washington, United States

Free admission, da Vinci on this side of the Atlantic.

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Pergamon Museum
#17

Pergamon Museum

Berlin, Germany

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon and the Pergamon Altar, reassembled in full.

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Topkapı Palace Museum
#18

Topkapı Palace Museum

Istanbul, Turkey

The Ottoman sultans' palace, harem, and treasury — overlooking the Bosphorus.

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Galleria dell'Accademia
#19

Galleria dell'Accademia

Florence, Italy

Michelangelo's David in person, plus the unfinished Prisoners.

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Reina Sofía
#20

Reina Sofía

Madrid, Spain

Picasso's Guernica anchors a 20th-century Spanish art masterclass.

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Georgian National Museum
#21

Georgian National Museum

Tbilisi, Georgia

Five millennia of Caucasus history — Colchian gold, Soviet posters, and the country's oldest hominid finds.

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Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts
#22

Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts

Tbilisi, Georgia

Medieval Georgian icons, gilded Khakhuli triptych, and the country's largest holdings of Pirosmani.

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Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery
#23

Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery

Tbilisi, Georgia

A compact survey of 19th-20th century Georgian painting — Pirosmani, Gudiashvili, Kakabadze.

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Open Air Museum of Ethnography
#24

Open Air Museum of Ethnography

Tbilisi, Georgia

Folk houses from every Georgian region rebuilt on a hillside above Vake — a country tour in a day.

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Galleria Borghese
#25

Galleria Borghese

Rome, Italy

Bernini's marbles you'd swear were breathing — plus Caravaggios and Titians in a Cardinal's pleasure villa.

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Capitoline Museums
#26

Capitoline Museums

Rome, Italy

The Capitoline Wolf, the Dying Gaul, and a Marcus Aurelius bronze on Michelangelo's piazza.

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National Roman Museum
#27

National Roman Museum

Rome, Italy

Frescoes from Livia's garden, the Augustus of Prima Porta, and the Boxer at Rest — Roman art at full intensity.

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Istanbul Archaeology Museums
#28

Istanbul Archaeology Museums

Istanbul, Türkiye

The Alexander Sarcophagus, the Treaty of Kadesh tablet, and a tour of Anatolian + Mesopotamian antiquity.

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Istanbul Modern
#29

Istanbul Modern

Istanbul, Türkiye

Türkiye's first modern-art museum — Republic-era painting, photography, and contemporary installations on the Bosphorus.

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Pera Museum
#30

Pera Museum

Istanbul, Türkiye

Osman Hamdi's Tortoise Trainer, Orientalist paintings, Kütahya ceramics, and Anatolian weights & measures.

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