1. Pergamon Museum, Berlin
The Pergamon Museum is one of the largest museums on the Museum Island in Berlin, as well the most visited museum in Germany. The historical museum is probably most well-known for housing such invaluable artifacts, as the entire Ancient Greek Pergamon Altar, the Babylonian Ishtar Gate, and countless other archeological finds from the Middle East, Ancient Greece and Rome.
2. The British Museum, London
The British Museum needs no introduction, as it's one of the most massive museums in the world and one that encompasses the entire history of the human civilization from all corners of the planet. The online version of the famous museum offers you to explore the history of humanity in five major regions of the world with the use of an interactive timeline complete with audio descriptions of each exhibit.
3. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Image Source: Yann Caradec/ Flickr
This Parisian museum is housed in a former railway station and it has quite a comprehensive collection of European painting and sculpture. The museum is most well-known for its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection, which is the largest in the world, and includes such iconic painters as Monet, Degas, Renoir, Manet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Sisley, Seurat and Gauguin. If you love Impressionism, this one is definitely a must see.
Click Here to Take a Virtual Tour of the Museum
4. National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City is not just another historical museum, as the collection of this museum encompasses some of the most significant archaelogical finds of pre-Columbian Mexico. For example, the exhibition includes the Aztec calendar stone (pictured above), known as the Stone of the Sun, and the famous Xochipilli statue (an Aztec deity).
5. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The Getty is a beautiful museum set against the luscious green backdrop of gardens and hills in Los Angeles, and it gets more than a million visitors every year. The art museum contains a varied collection of European art and artifacts from the 8th century AD until today. Some of the most prominent features are paintings by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Turner, Gaugin, Paul Cézanne, and others.
6. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh is, without doubt, one of the most famous painters in art history. Both the vibrant paintings of the Dutch artist executed in a signature style and his dramatic life are worth knowing and learning about, and there's no better way of doing so than by taking a look at a museum dedicated exclusively to him in Amsterdam. The Van Gogh Museum has the largest collection of van Gogh paintings, drawings and personal letters in the world.
7. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
If modern South Korean art peaks your interest, taking a look at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is much recommended. The museum showcases a wide range of visual arts across various genres, including painting, design, architecture, and crafts. Various international artists across different time periods are also featured in the museum.
8. MASP, São Paulo
MASP is not just an art museum, it's also a cultural center and an iconic representation of 20-century Brazilian artchitecture, all in one. The museum is said to contain the finest collection of European art in Latin America, but it also showcases a multitude of Brazilian paintings, drawings, and prints.
9. The Guggenheim Museum, New York
The network of Guggenheim museums is among the most famous modern art museums in the world, and the New York Guggenheim is the original location of the now vast collection of contemporary art the Guggenheim Foundation holds in its possession. The New York museum has quite a comprehensive selection of art beginning with the Impressionist period through Modernism and contemporary art.
10. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The National Gallery of Art is one of the largest art museums in the United States, and it contains countless pieces of great historical and cultural significance, such as Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Portrait of Ginevra Benci" and "Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son" by Claude Monet, just to name a few.
11. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
If you're as enamoured with the Italian Renaissance as we are, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the capital of the famed art movement, is a must see. This art gallery is among the largest, most important and most visited in Italy, and it showcases countless priceless pieces, such as ‘The Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli, as well as works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Titian.
12. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The beautiful Rijksmuseum is a national heritage site and the most important museum in Amsterdam. The museum offers a balanced collection of historical artifacts and art, making an understandable focus of Dutch masters in their art display, including several priceless masterpieces by Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals and van Gogh.
