🖼️ Category
The world's best art & encyclopedic museums
Art and encyclopedic museums house the broadest collections of human creative achievement — spanning painting, sculpture, decorative arts and antiquities across thousands of years. These are the institutions that define what a museum means to most travellers: grand halls filled with masterworks from civilisations ancient and modern.
79 museums across 25 countries and 59 cities, ranked by our editorial composite of TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice, AECOM/TEA attendance data and coverage in Condé Nast Traveler, Time Out, National Geographic and The Times.
#1
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Musée du Louvre
Paris, France
The world's most-visited museum
⭐ 4.6(312,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor #1
#2
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, United States
America's grandest encyclopedic museum
⭐ 4.8(91,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#3
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Vatican Museums
Vatican City, Vatican City
Sistine Chapel & papal collections
⭐ 4.7(178,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#4
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
British Museum
London, United Kingdom
8 million objects, 2 million years of history
⭐ 4.7(156,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor #1 in UK
#5
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
State Hermitage Museum
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Catherine the Great's imperial collection
⭐ 4.8(41,000 reviews)🏆 UNESCO World Heritage
#6
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museo del Prado
Madrid, Spain
The world's finest collection of Spanish art
⭐ 4.8(64,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#7
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Uffizi Gallery
Florence, Italy
Birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, in collection form
⭐ 4.7(71,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#8
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Dutch Golden Age in one building
⭐ 4.8(58,000 reviews)🏆 European Museum of the Year 2015
#9
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Musée d'Orsay
Paris, France
Impressionism in a Beaux-Arts railway station
⭐ 4.8(89,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#14
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
National Gallery
London, United Kingdom
Western European painting from 1250–1900, free to all
⭐ 4.8(38,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#18
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
National Palace Museum
Taipei, Taiwan
The world's greatest collection of Chinese imperial art
⭐ 4.6(25,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#28
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Tokyo National Museum
Tokyo, Japan
Japan's oldest and largest museum
⭐ 4.6(14,000 reviews)🏆 National Treasures collection
#29
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Galleria dell'Accademia
Florence, Italy
Home of Michelangelo's David
⭐ 4.8(47,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#30
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Vienna, Austria
The Habsburg imperial art collection
⭐ 4.8(19,000 reviews)🏆 World's largest Bruegel collection
#45
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
America's second largest art museum
⭐ 4.8(35,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor #1 worldwide 2014
#46
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
J. Paul Getty Museum (Getty Center)
Los Angeles, United States
Richard Meier's hilltop campus above LA
⭐ 4.8(24,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#49
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Jean Nouvel's 'rain of light' on Saadiyat Island
⭐ 4.6(18,000 reviews)🏆 Architectural icon
#59
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Mauritshuis
The Hague, Netherlands
Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' lives here
⭐ 4.8(9,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#60
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Pinacoteca di Brera
Milan, Italy
Northern Italy's premier picture gallery
⭐ 4.7(9,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#61
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
National Gallery of Art
Washington, United States
America's national art museum on the Mall
⭐ 4.8(19,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#63
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museum of Islamic Art
Doha, Qatar
I.M. Pei's last great commission
⭐ 4.8(13,000 reviews)🏆 Architectural icon
#65
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Tate Britain
London, United Kingdom
500 years of British art on Millbank
⭐ 4.6(14,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#67
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, Canada
Canadian and Indigenous art on the Ottawa River
⭐ 4.7(7,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#69
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai, China
Chinese art from prehistory to the Qing dynasty
⭐ 4.6(8,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#70
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Asian Art Museum
San Francisco, United States
18,000 works spanning 6,000 years
⭐ 4.6(5,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#72
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Los Angeles, United States
The largest art museum in the western US
⭐ 4.4(14,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#73
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, United States
America's most encyclopedic art museum after the Met
⭐ 4.7(14,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#74
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, United States
Top of the 'Rocky Steps'
⭐ 4.6(11,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#75
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
America's most beautiful free art museum
⭐ 4.8(8,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#76
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit, United States
Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals
⭐ 4.8(8,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#77
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Houston, United States
Texas's encyclopedic powerhouse
⭐ 4.7(7,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#78
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museum of Fine Arts, Bilbao
Bilbao, Spain
Basque, Spanish and European masters
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#90
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
Lisbon, Portugal
One man's perfect collection in a garden
⭐ 4.8(6,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#95
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
Melbourne, Australia
Australia's oldest and most-visited art museum
⭐ 4.7(16,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#96
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
SANAA's expansion in the Domain
⭐ 4.8(9,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#99
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Ashmolean Museum
Oxford, United Kingdom
Britain's first public museum
⭐ 4.7(7,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#100
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Cambridge's encyclopedic gem
⭐ 4.7(5,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#101
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
Lisbon, Portugal
Portugal's national art collection
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#102
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil
Lina Bo Bardi's red-pillared icon on Avenida Paulista
⭐ 4.6(13,000 reviews)🏆 UNESCO listed
#104
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Pinacoteca de São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil
São Paulo's oldest art museum
⭐ 4.7(11,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#115
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Brooklyn Museum
New York, United States
America's third largest art museum
⭐ 4.6(7,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#116
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Frick Collection
New York, United States
Henry Clay Frick's Gilded Age mansion museum
⭐ 4.8(6,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#119
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Nezu Museum
Tokyo, Japan
Pre-modern Japanese art and a hidden Tokyo garden
⭐ 4.7(1,800 reviews)🏆 Architectural icon
#120
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Singapore National Gallery
Singapore, Singapore
Two civic landmarks linked into Southeast Asia's biggest art gallery
⭐ 4.6(13,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#128
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Alte Pinakothek
Munich, Germany
Old Master European painting in Munich
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#129
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Belvedere Museum
Vienna, Austria
Klimt's The Kiss in Prince Eugene's palace
⭐ 4.7(39,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#130
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Albertina
Vienna, Austria
One of the world's finest graphic art collections
⭐ 4.6(21,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#131
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Musée de l'Orangerie
Paris, France
Monet's Water Lilies in two oval rooms
⭐ 4.7(25,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#133
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Petit Palais
Paris, France
Paris's free Beaux-Arts gem
⭐ 4.7(7,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#136
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Bode Museum
Berlin, Germany
Sculpture and Byzantine art on Museum Island
⭐ 4.6(5,000 reviews)🏆 UNESCO Museum Island
#138
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Alte Nationalgalerie
Berlin, Germany
19th-century painting on Museum Island
⭐ 4.7(6,000 reviews)🏆 UNESCO Museum Island
#145
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Nationalmuseum
Stockholm, Sweden
Sweden's national museum of fine arts
⭐ 4.7(7,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#150
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Ateneum
Helsinki, Finland
Finland's national art museum
⭐ 4.6(4,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#152
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Glasgow's Spanish-Baroque cathedral of art
⭐ 4.8(17,000 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#153
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Burrell Collection
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Sir William Burrell's bequest in Pollok Country Park
⭐ 4.8(4,500 reviews)🏆 Art Fund Museum of the Year 2023
#157
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Wallace Collection
London, United Kingdom
An aristocratic London town house museum
⭐ 4.8(5,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#162
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Walker Art Gallery
Liverpool, United Kingdom
The 'National Gallery of the North'
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#167
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, United States
Moshe Safdie's American art masterpiece in the Ozarks
⭐ 4.9(9,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#168
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, United States
Hidden gem of Los Angeles
⭐ 4.8(3,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#169
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Huntington Library, Art Museum & Botanical Gardens
San Marino, United States
Gainsborough, gardens and the Gutenberg Bible
⭐ 4.9(14,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#170
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Kimbell Art Museum
Fort Worth, United States
Louis Kahn's most beautiful museum
⭐ 4.8(4,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#171
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Menil Collection
Houston, United States
Renzo Piano's first museum, set in a Houston neighbourhood
⭐ 4.8(3,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#175
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh, United States
America's first museum of modern art
⭐ 4.6(1,800 reviews)🏆 Oldest contemporary art biennial
#176
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Barnes Foundation
Philadelphia, United States
An eccentric salon-style hang of Impressionist masterpieces
⭐ 4.8(9,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#181
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Art Gallery of Ontario
Toronto, Canada
Frank Gehry's hometown museum
⭐ 4.7(9,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#182
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
Enschede, Netherlands
Dutch & European art in the eastern Netherlands
⭐ 4.5(1,500 reviews)🏆 European Museum of the Year nominee
#183
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Kröller-Müller Museum
Otterlo, Netherlands
Van Gogh and a sculpture garden in a national park
⭐ 4.8(6,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#184
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam, Netherlands
The world's first publicly accessible art depot
⭐ 4.5(3,500 reviews)🏆 Architectural icon
#186
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Rijksmuseum Schiphol Airport branch
Schiphol, Netherlands
Dutch Golden Age between flights
⭐ 4.5(1,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#189
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Madrid, Spain
The third leg of Madrid's Golden Triangle
⭐ 4.7(25,000 reviews)🏆 Madrid's Golden Triangle of Art
#191
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
MNAC – Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Barcelona, Spain
1000 years of Catalan art on Montjuïc
⭐ 4.7(9,500 reviews)🏆 Largest Romanesque mural collection
#195
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Villa Borghese (Galleria Borghese)
Rome, Italy
Bernini sculptures in Cardinal Scipione's villa
⭐ 4.8(16,000 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#200
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Auckland Art Gallery
Auckland, New Zealand
Aotearoa's most-visited art gallery
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 World Building of the Year 2013
#207
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Suzhou Museum
Suzhou, China
I.M. Pei's homecoming gift
⭐ 4.7(4,500 reviews)🏆 Free entry
#208
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Hong Kong Museum of Art
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Chinese art with a Victoria Harbour view
⭐ 4.6(2,500 reviews)🏆 Recently renovated
#211
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Kyoto National Museum
Kyoto, Japan
Heian and medieval Japanese art
⭐ 4.6(4,500 reviews)🏆 Architectural icon
#212
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Nara National Museum
Nara, Japan
The world's finest Buddhist art museum
⭐ 4.6(2,500 reviews)🏆 Most important Japanese Buddhist art collection
#214
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Pera Museum
Istanbul, Turkey
Orientalist painting in Beyoğlu
⭐ 4.6(5,500 reviews)🏆 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice
#215
🖼️ Art & Encyclopedic
Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
1400 years of Islamic art and science
⭐ 4.6(2,200 reviews)🏆 Sharjah UNESCO Cultural Capital
About art & encyclopedic museums
From the Louvre's 35,000 works to the Met's two million objects, art and encyclopedic museums serve as universal libraries of visual culture. They typically grew from royal or aristocratic collections, later opened to the public during the 18th and 19th centuries. Today they anchor major cities as tourist destinations, economic engines and centres of scholarship. Our ranking weighs both the depth and breadth of their holdings, alongside visitor satisfaction and critical acclaim.
The top-ranked art & encyclopedic museum on our list is Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. Explore all 79 museums in this category above, or browse our full Top 50 ranking for a cross-category overview.