Culture hubs
International Museum Day (IMD) falls on May 18 and it is coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). This year the theme is Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition. Every year the theme is different and it is meant to reflect the international museum community’s preoccupations.
Let us take a look at some of the world’s greatest museums and one of their most valued artifacts.
1. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The Smithsonian is the world’s largest research and museum complex, with 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and various research stations. More than 137 million objects detailing America’s story are housed here.
Main attraction: Dorothy’s ruby red slippers.
2. Le Louvre, Paris, France
The Louvre was a medieval fortress and the palace of the kings of France before becoming a museum two centuries ago. The museum’s collections, which range from antiquity to the first half of the 19th century, are among the most important in the world. A good place to start is the Sully Wing, at the foundations of Philippe-Auguste’s medieval keep.
Main attraction: Coronation of Napolean by Jacques-Louis David
3. The Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece
Its amazing transparent glass floor provides a walk over history, with a view of the archaeological excavation, while sloping upward to the Acropolis with sanctuaries of the Athenians from each historic period nearby.
Main attraction: The frieze of the Parthenon
4. State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
The Hermitage has managed to acquire a spectacular collection of world art — more than three million items — spanning the years from the Stone Age to the early 20th century. Catherine the Great founded the museum that same year when she purchased 255 paintings from Berlin.
Main attractions: The Treasure Gallery’s Gold Rooms showcase golden masterpieces from Eurasia.
5. The British Museum, London, England
It is Britain’s largest museum and looks after the national collection of archaeology and ethnography — more than eight million objects ranging from prehistoric bones to chunks of Athens’ Parthenon, from whole Assyrian palace rooms to exquisite gold jewels.
Main attraction: The Egyptian gallery.
6. The Prado, Madrid, Spain
The Spanish royal family is responsible for the Prado’s bounty of classical masterpieces. Kings and queens collected and commissioned art with passion and good taste. In addition to stars of Spanish painting such as Velázquez, Goya, Ribera, and Zurbarán, the Prado has big collections of Italian (including Titian and Raphael) and Flemish artists. Fernando VII opened the collection to the public in 1819, in the same neoclassic building it’s housed in today, designed by Juan de Villanueva.
Main attraction: The Clothed Maja by Francisco Goya.
7. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
This is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its European paintings are stunning: works by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Rodin, and other luminaries. The Egyptian Collection showcases the tomb of Perneb (circa 2440 B.C.) and the exquisite Temple of Dendur (circa 23-10 B.C.). The American Wing contains American arts and crafts, including a room from a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie House. And the list goes on and on.
Main attractions: Human-headed winged lions which once stood at the entrance of Nimrud’s palace.
8. The Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Italy
Twenty-two separate collections comprise the Musei Vaticani, each one more spectacular than the next. The most famous are probably the Museo Pio-Clementino, with its splendid classical sculpture; the Raphael Rooms, the Pinacoteca (picture gallery), and, of course, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
Main attraction: The Sistine Chapel
9. The Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
The Galleria degli Uffizi holds the world’s finest collection of Renaissance paintings. All the famous names of Italian art are here — not only the Renaissance masters, but also painters from the early medieval, Baroque, and Mannerist heydays.
Main attraction: Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi
10. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
About 900,000 objects fill museum, the largest collection of art and history in the Netherlands. It is most famous for its paintings by 17th-century Dutch masters, including Ruysdael, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, and Rembrandt van Rijn.
Main attraction: “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt