Travel Channel 

Twenty museums. One lifetime. You can do it!

Here's the Top 10:

10.  Kunsthistorisches Museum; Vienna, Austria

Like the Medici in Florence, the Hapsburgs of Vienna were wealthy, enthusiastic patrons and collectors of art. Their legacy is one that sits Vienna on top of the pile of the richest art cities in Europe. Today their mighty collections of royal carriages, decorative arts and sculpture, coins, a castle, books, armor, musical instruments, European paintings, as well as Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Near Eastern antiquities, are spread throughout eight buildings across the city. You will be rewarded handsomely for paying particular attention to the tiny stone 'Venus of Willendorf,' a universal image of nature and nurture felt as acutely today as it would have been upon its creation 30,000 years ago. Elsewhere lie superior Titians, Mantegna's physically perfect 'Saint Sebastian,' masterpieces by Brueghel the Elder (the largest collection in the world), a flourish of Rubens and a dozen Holbeins. Farther along still are the 10th-century imperial crown, the sumptuous carved-onyx 'Gemma Augustea' and the star of any celestial table setting, Benvenuto Cellini's colossus in miniature, the golden 'Saltcellar,' fit (and created) for a king.
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Main Building, Maria Theresien-Platz, 1010, Vienna > www.khm.at

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9.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York

A block of New York's Upper East Side ' sandwiched between the Museum Mile of Fifth Avenue and Central Park ' contains works plucked from 50,000 years of human creativity, belief and power. The Met, as it's more commonly known, is a powerhouse. Covering 14 acres, The Met's building is at once classical and modern. Its collection spans the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as the ancient, classical and Islamic worlds. The works include painting, photography, sculpture, glass, costume, interior design, musical instruments, antiquities, armor, statuary and the entire first-century Egyptian Temple of Dendur. The best, though perhaps most impractical, way to see the collection is simply to take advantage of the "pay-what-you-wish" entrance fee (which can be very affordable indeed, wink wink) and stop by as often as you can. For a short trip, you should either pick a room at random to really concentrate on or whiz around to get a taste of the whole place. We'd recommend packing in the aforementioned temple, medieval armor, the Renaissance patio from Spain, microscopic illustrations in the Islamic 'Sha-Nameh,' English Lansdowne rooms, Sargent's 'Madame X,' Rosenquist's dolls' heads, Rembrandt's 'Aristotle,' the Greek fifth-century Euphronios Krater, African tribal headdresses, Flemish panel paintings and the Chinese garden court. Phew!
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1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028-0198 > www.metmuseum.org

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8.  The National Archaeological Museum; Athens, Greece

This museum holds the greatest collection of ancient Greek art on Earth. This immeasurably valuable asset can be said to translate into substance the birth of modern Western thought concerning the human condition and our place in the universe. It is in these remnants of a bygone age that we see the birth of the concept of the importance of man as an individual amongst all the other beings of creation. These ideas are evident in the museum's fifth-century B.C. bronze Zeus, perfectly poised to throw a lightening bolt; modeled so as to be freestanding, he is the result of close observation ' the study appears to be of a god, but in truth it is the study of man. Other wonders include the gold funerary masks of Mycenae (such as the one famously misidentified as Agamemnon's), the sensitive fifth-century B.C. relief of 'Demeter giving seeds of grain to Tripolemos,' the classical sculpture of Nereid riding a horse (her garments blowing in the wind), and the pottery collection ' the finest in Greece.
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44 Patission Street, Athens, 106 82

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7.  The National Palace Museum; Taipei, Taiwan

The holdings of this grand museum are extraordinary, as are the circumstances by which they came to end up here. The pieces in the collection are the result of more than a thousand years of personal, imperial collecting. The most turbulent period of the collection's upheaval was between 1924 and 1965. Between these years the Chinese emperors, their courts and treasures were taken out of the Forbidden City (or 'Palace Museum') and put on the move constantly to dodge a warlord's troops, the Japanese and finally the Communist army. Remarkably, the collection was kept out of enemy hands in 20,000 crates, which were moved all over China by a variety of means ' not least by foot ' and hidden in a series of ingenious places, including a sugar warehouse. In 1965 they were moved into the vast tunnels dug out of the mountainside behind the newly opened National Palace Museum. There are hundreds of thousands of objects of the highest quality tucked away in these tunnels. It is estimated that, at the current rate of rotation, it will take them 12 years to display the total contents once over. The emperors had impeccable taste, and many of the pieces are works of genius. As a fitting, true microcosm of the value of the collection, we recommend hunting out the tiny Ch'ing Dynasty carved olive stone boat, complete with eight individual figures, shutters and, at a mere 3.4 cm long, a 300-character poem inscribed delicately on its base.
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221 Chi-shan Road, Sec.2, Shih-lin, Taipei, 11143 > www.npm.gov.tw

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6.  The State Hermitage Museum; St. Petersburg, Russia

Spending just a second in front of each piece in the Hermitage's collection would take up over three weeks of your time. Its 2 million items are spread throughout five palaces built over five centuries. As with the Prado and Uffizi, it's best to stick with what's uniquely local (despite excellent Picassos, Matisses and Italian High Renaissance paintings). Focus on the artwork and artifacts of the sixth- to fourth-century B.C. tribes who populated this part of the world and buried their leaders and gentry deep underground, which is why so many of its antiquities survive and in such good condition. These Sarmatians and Scythians left behind awesomely decorated everyday and ceremonial items, like saddles and wall hangings, as well as what forms the superior core to Czar Peter the Great's famous Gold Treasury. The latter contains gold combs, bottles and shield emblems that display the most remarkable skill ' a triumph of detail and storytelling over size. The Hermitage's other speciality lies in the halls of Russian furniture and decorative arts. There you will find an unusual collection of tapestries and embroideries of courtly portraits. Translated from oil paintings, they are though no less lacking in life and detail, as one might expect.
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Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya, 34, 190000 St. Petersburg > www.hermitagemuseum.org

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5.  Vatican City

The Vatican is both a religious and cultural Mecca. It contains some of the finest works of Italian art from the Renaissance and High Renaissance, a.k.a., the finest works ever produced. The dome was designed by Michelangelo, the portico created by Bernini, and St. Peter was martyred here. Fact and legend coalesce on this spot, making it one of the most overwhelming and intoxicating places on Earth. Of the tens of thousands of works on display (spread throughout around 1,400 rooms), a few stand out from the others: The 'Belvedere Torso' and marble 'Laocoon' are both staple models, called upon by artists throughout art history. Bernini's 'Baldacchino' is a magnificent marriage of political and religious aims, uniting Old Testament wisdom, Constantine's Christian tradition and a triumphal church under the guidance of the Barberini family (who paid for it). The Christ in Michelangelo's 'Pieta' is not dead, but simply in a peaceful state of repose awaiting his return and triumph ' look closely, blood still pulses through his veins. Finally, the Italian wonder of the world: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. It is testament to the artist's skill and dexterity that he turned this 'nuisance side-project' (he considered his time better spent with marble) into a masterpiece, and no matter how good the reproductions you've seen, nothing can match standing in this room and feeling the great weight of human existence around you.
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Various locations, Vatican > www.vatican.va

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4.  Galleria degli Uffizi; Florence, Italy

What the Prado is to Spanish art, the Uffizi is to Italian. But more so. It too has a small, but strong collection of foreign works, and some of its native creations are split between other institutions, like the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris. However, the emphasis here is definitely on Italian painting, in particular from the Renaissance. Anyone living in the Western world who produced or appreciated art at the time (or largely since) would have looked to the works by artists in this collection for inspiration or instruction. The collection was born and cultivated by the enormously philanthropic Medici family over a number of centuries. The fruits of their generous patronage are beguiling. Having to single any works out is painful, but Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus' and 'Primavera' stand out as colorful gems ' the latter chock-full of political and religious intrigue ' as do many of the earlier works on display: From a technical perspective, Cimabue's 'Madonna in Majesty' and Giotto's enthroned Madonna both act as hinges in Western art; their vitality and presence ensured that high religious art would never look the same again.
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Piazzale degli Uffizi, 50122 Florence > www.polomuseale.firenze.it

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3.  The Natural History Museum; London

In the late 19th century, the British national collection was split two ways: one half became the British Museum (the museum of all mankind); the other became the Natural History Museum (the museum of all creation). Here, in the Natural History's 70 million or so specimens, lies the evidence of what man has learned of all facets of creation over the last 250 years. So important is this collection, that parts of it have been presented over the centuries as evidence used to debate and argue the age of the planet and the evolution of life. The specimen of cacao used in the Cadbury Brothers' original recipe for chocolate is here, as are Darwin's Galapagos finches and the plants from Capt. Cook's expeditions. Over half the meteorites that have hit the planet are here too, alongside complete dinosaur skeletons and rare examples of dinosaur skin. The building was purpose built; a lush Romanesque façade that continues inside. It is filled with fitting, rustling ornamentation, such as birds, animals, leaves and flowers. Temporary exhibitions range from contemporary art to activities that replicate life in the freezing Antarctic. Far from being a dusty dinosaur, the museum today carries out an invaluable function as a center of interactive research and learning about vital topics like the state of global warming worldwide and the effect it has on the planet and its inhabitants. It is a museum important as much for our past as for our present and future.
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Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD > www.nhm.ac.uk

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2.  The Louvre; Paris

The Louvre is France's finest cultural institution, and one that bares its history on its sleeve. You can enter via a contemporary glass pyramid, walk around its 12th-century fortress perimeter underground, follow the ornate stairways of the 16th-century kings between galleries and, thanks to the 18th-century French Revolution, walk through nearly every room in the building. Although there are world-famous pieces here, it is well worth taking the time to adjust yourself to each room and corridor that you enter, as there is much to take note of that many miss. For example, after viewing the 'Venus de Milo,' notice the ceiling of the small room beyond; it will tell you more about the Venus' influence on art history than the sculpture's explanatory plaque. To the right of the large crowd staring at the 'Victoire de Samothrace,' you'll find yourself alone with a delicious Botticelli fresco ignored in the corridor's shadows ' it's all puppy-dog eyes and fumbling toes. On your way to join the queue to get to within 8 feet of the 'Mona Lisa,' stop at the clump of 'Venus and child' pictures by Botticelli, Lippi and Ghirlandaio. The subject and composition are identical in each, but notice the joy in the sly Lippi smile, the near photo-realism of Ghirlandaio's faces and the sensitive study of a woman lost in Botticelli's rosy-cheeked, sullen virgin. There is much of worth to see here, and taking your time you will be all the better for it.
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Palais Royal, 75001 Paris > www.louvre.fr

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1.  The British Museum; London

A quick glance at what the British Museum has lost will tell you much about the importance of what remains; its natural history and library collections alone formed separate institutions, each taking their place amongst the greatest of their kind in the world. Left behind were objects of the highest quality of magnificence, beauty, awe, genius, reverence, complexity and great age. Yet it is perhaps the presence of the human and everyday (vain, simple, honest, contemporary), in amongst the greatest treasures imaginable, that provides the visitor with the crucial perspective and thus the tools with which to come to a personal understanding of what is on display. A (free-of-charge) visit to this museum is vital if you want to learn where not only our culture, but others too have come from, and where it is we each look to be going. In the words of its current director, in the British Museum "you can locate your culture in the context of the whole world." What a rare blessing that is, indeed.
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Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG > www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk