Magnificent world-class collections of art and antiquities spanning centuries and civilizations, housed in a museum which opened to the public in 1848.
Displays include masterpieces by such artists as Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Constable, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne and Picasso, drawings, prints and portrait miniatures, sculpture, furniture, clocks, ceramics, silver, armour, coins and medals, illuminated manuscripts, arts of the Far and Near East and antiquities from Egypt, the Ancient Near East, Greece, Rome and Cyprus.
Major exhibitions for 2010:
Until 5 April: Sargent, Sickert, Spencer
26 April - 18 July: Maggi Hambling: The Wave
27 August - 9 January 2011: Epic of the Persian Kings: the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi