18 Must-Visit Art Museums Around the World

Key facts

• The Louvre in Paris is the world's most visited museum, with nine million visitors annually.
• The Vatican Museums were founded in the 16th century by Pope Julius II.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the Americas.
• The State Hermitage Museum was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764.
• The Prado Museum in Madrid was founded in 1819.
• The Uffizi Gallery was built by the Medici family between 1560 and 1580.
• The National Palace Museum in Taipei holds over 700,000 Chinese imperial artifacts.
• The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was founded in 1798.
• The Tokyo National Museum is Japan's oldest and largest museum.
• The Musée d'Orsay opened in 1986 in a converted railway station.
• The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha was designed by I.M. Pei.
• MASP in São Paulo was designed by Lina Bo Bardi.
• The National Gallery in London has 2,300 paintings.
• The Art Institute of Chicago was founded in 1879.
• The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997 and was designed by Frank Gehry.
• MoMA in New York was founded in 1929 by Lillie P. Bliss, Mary Quinn Sullivan, and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
• The Tate Modern opened in 2000 in a former power station.
• The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., holds the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the western hemisphere.