There are now over 55,000 museums in 202 countries throughout the globe. While art museums are vital cultural institutions that preserve history, exhibit humanity’s ingenuity, and provide unique perspectives across cultures and identities, it’s no secret that not all of them are made equal. Despite the fact that art taste is extremely subjective, museums may be ranked in a variety of ways, such as by the number of visitors they get each year or by how advanced their curatorial programming is.
We’ve compiled a list of the world’s 14 best art museums based on which have the biggest and most extensive collections of classic art. What makes a piece of art iconic, you may wonder? These are works by artists who are “household names” in pop culture and are likely to be recognized by persons who haven’t studied art history academically.
Is it problematic that the art canon is entirely Eurocentric and dominated by white masculine men? Absolutely. Without getting into a dispute about what makes a great museum great, here are the world’s top art museums, in no particular order, based on the number of renowned works they contain.
National Gallery Of Art
The National Gallery of Washington, D.C., is another National Gallery that does not disappoint. It’s the only public exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s work in the United States, including his portrait Ginevra de’ Benci (1474–1478) on show. Along with paintings by the Renaissance artist, you may see works by Georgia O’Keeffe, the “Mother of American Modernism,” including her “Jack-in-the-Pulpit” series.
The East Building of the Gallery was reopened in 2016 following a three-year refurbishment, and it currently houses over 500 works by artists such as Alexander Calder, Barbara Kruger, Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol.
Honorable mention museums here include the Tate Modern and City Museum, which is one of the best museums in the world featuring famous works.
Art Institute Of Chicago
Over 300,000 works of art are housed in the Art Institute of Chicago, many of which are considered masterpieces. The museum alone holds about 30 Monets, including his famous “Haystacks” series.
Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877), Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), and Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte are among the works on display (1884).
Honorable mentions here include The Met and Museum Houses which is one of the largest museums which features works like Starry Night and Reina Sofia, as part of modern art museums. Also, check out museums in Salt Lake city.
The National Gallery
A very famous British Museum. The National Gallery houses England’s national collection of Western European paintings from the 13th to the 19th century, with over 2,300 pieces, many of which are instantly recognized.
Most Art History 101 seminars will look at Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434), Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors (1533), John Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821), and Joseph Mallord William Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire (1838), all of which can be seen at London’s National Gallery.
This Central London museum has famous works on permanent display.
Uffizi Gallery
The Birth of Venus (1482–1485) by Sandro Botticelli is unquestionably on our list since it is housed at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, which houses one of the world’s most renowned Renaissance masterpieces.
Other treasures on the show are Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538), Caravaggio’s Medusa (1597), and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Annunciation, all renowned works that have carved out a significant position in the art history canon.
Getty Center
J. Paul Getty, an American oil magnate, founded The Getty Center to share his passion for the arts with the general public.
His own collection, as well as drawings, European paintings, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, sculpture, and photography, date from the 1830s to the present day, and, are housed in this amazing $1.3 billion facility. Must-Sees: Aside from the breathtaking views of Los Angeles from this property, you’ll want to visit Vincent van Gogh’s Irises and Paul Gauguin’s The Royal End.
Honorable mention here includes the Victoria and Albert Museum, which features a lot of square feet and counts as a historic museum featuring a little painting of Salvador Dalí, which is their main attraction.
Museo Del Prado
The Museo Nacional del Prado is the place to go if you want to learn about the skills of the great masters. It is largely acknowledged to have the best collection of European art in the world.
The roughly 8,200 sketches, 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, and 4,800 prints may keep you occupied for hours. Although Francisco Goya is the most well-known, paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Paul Reubens, El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Titian may also be found.
The picture Las Meninas by Velázquez is undoubtedly the most well-known work in The Prado Museum. Its strange and unique design will have you marveling at it for hours.
Acropolis Museum
The Acropolis Museum (Greek: o, Mouseio Akropolis) is an archaeological museum dedicated to the finds of the Acropolis of Athens’ archaeological site. The Acropolis Museum is routinely ranked among the world’s top museums. It is elegantly poised above Athens like a glowing box, dedicated to the Parthenon and its neighboring monuments.
The enormous glass windows elegantly blend the old and new sections of the city, creating an emotive experience. An honorable mention here features the Central Paris museum which features a complete list of famous art works and counts very high on the reputation scores from the reputation management because of the Mona Lisa. You can access it directly from the train station.
National Art Center
The National Art Center in Tokyo, which opened in 2007, is the most recent addition to the list. It differs from other art museums in that it does not have a permanent collection of works. It’s been characterized as an “empty museum” that solely hosts exhibits, with 69 in its first year. The National Art Center, which receives 2 million visitors each year, also featured a Monet show in 2007, which was the second most popular exhibition of the year worldwide.
Despite finishing third in the Americas, ahead of institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, the British Museum, and the State Hermitage, the National Art Center was ranked 16th globally, with a score of 77.5 percent. Despite the fact that worldwide experts regard it as an extraordinary museum, it receives poor marks for collection quality and contribution to society.
It is the third least known museum in the rankings, which is likely owing to the museum’s youth. It also has a significantly poor reputation inside Japan, where it is not as well-liked as it is in the other nine nations examined.
American Art Museum
The museum has one of the world’s greatest and most diversified collections of American art, featuring works by stylistically disparate luminaries such as John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer, and Georgia O’Keeffe, and is situated in one of Washington’s oldest public buildings.
The word “American” may be used to refer to all of North, Central, and South America. American art and architecture, on the other hand, refers to the geographical region of the contiguous United States of America for the purposes of this topic guide.
Shanghai Museum
The museum, which is located in Shanghai’s People’s Square, has a huge collection of Chinese art, with over 120,000 works arranged into eleven galleries. Despite not being one of China’s biggest museums, it gets 1.9 million visitors yearly. It was founded in 1952 and restored in 1996. The museum also exhibits numerous Chinese national treasures, including one of only three surviving instances of a Han Dynasty clear bronze mirror.
The Shanghai Museum is ranked 17th in the world, as well as 17th in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Its position as the second-least-known museum emphasizes the relationship between a museum’s familiarity and its overall reputation. It has the lowest reputation in its native country and is one of just two museums in the rankings with a greater international reputation than in its own country.
One of East Asia’s best museums. The local community enjoys the short list of North American and Spanish Artists and works from Claude Monet and the largest collections of Surrealism.
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