1. The British Museum, London
The British Museum sees around 6 million visitors pass through it's doors each year to see an impressive 13 million different objects from representing the rich history of human culture around the world reflecting London's global presence. The British Museum houses relics from virtually every civilization in the world including Chines, Asian, Aztec and Classical Art. The must see artefacts at the BM are the Egyptian Mummies, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. The building is impressive too. The central quadrangle was redeveloped to a design by Foster & Partners to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court and is the largest covered square in Europe. Architects Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners are the designers behind a £100million new World Conservation and Exhibition Centre to house many of the temporary displays. Incredible since admission to the British Museum is free.
2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The main building at "the Met" is one of the largest art galleries in the world attracting around 5 million visitors every year. The Museum Highlights tour is the best way of seeing the Met as it covers roughly 1.6 million square feet. Highlights include the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian collection in a purpose built glass walled gallery with views over Central Park as well as Adam & Eve, a well known engraving by Albrecht Durer. The Met houses everything from Islamic art and European paitings to collections of arms and armour. The entrance fee is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students with children and members free.
3. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City
At the moment, the Museum of Modern Art has a wonderful Matisse exhibition concentrating on four years of the painters life: Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917. The exhibition impressively sets some of the work of Matisse amongst other works of the time which helped inspire and engineer the style of Matisse. The show also uses x-rays and computer enhanced technology to demonstrate how much work went into some of the pieces. It is this kind of delivery that has given MoMA the reputation of being one of the foremost galleries for modern art in the world. From an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, the museum now has a collection of over 150,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, architectural models and more. It also has a massive archive of over 22,000 films and 4,000,000 stills, 300,000 books on art and files on more than 70,000 artists which contribute to MoMA's mission to be one of the principle primary sources of information on modern art in the world today.
4. Tate Modern, London
London's Tate modern used to be a power station which is built on the bank of the River Thames and has been magficently transformed into one of the best art galleries in the world. The huge turbine room provides an impressive entrance to the gallery which links up with The City via the Norman Foster designed Millenium Bridge over The Thames. The gallery is large, bright and airy with room upon room of cartoon, pop, sculpture as well as more iconic twentieth century artists such as Matisse, Moore, Dali and Picasso. The Tate Modern only opened in 2000 yet last year saw 4,700,000 visitors pass through it's doors.
5. The National Gallery, London
The National Gallery in London stands very grandly on the north side of Trafalgar Square, a busy square incorporating Nelson's Column, the statues of lions and the water fountains. Similar to the MoMA it was founded to house a collection of just 36 paintings. Today it houses works from almost every major school of art with over 2,300 paintings. The collection includes Rembrandt, Monet and Van Gogh and similar to the Metroploitan Museum of Art in New York. The best way to navigate the National Gallery is with one of the guided tours which is free of charge as is entry to the gallery although donations are appreciated. The National Gallery saw about 4,700,000 visitors in 2009.
