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Museums hold large collections of items relating to their subject, building some of the largest complexes in the world in order to store and exhibit the collection in a controlled atmosphere . The world's most important museums have also engaged in various expansion projects through the years, expanding their total exhibition space.

List

The following is a list of museums ranked according to their floor area where published by reliable sources. Only museums with more than 20,000 square meters (220,000 sq ft) of floor space are included. Entries are not ranked as large museums that do not have reliably-sourced statistics may be omitted; this is not necessarily a complete list.

Building	Name	City	Year established	Subject	Floor area	Exhibition space	Collection	Country
	Louvre	Paris	1792	Art, architecture, history	758,000 m (8,160,000 sq ft)	72,735 m (782,910 sq ft)	More than 380,000 (35,000 on display)	France
	State Hermitage Museum	Saint Petersburg	1764	Art	233,345 m (2,511,700 sq ft)	66,842 m (719,480 sq ft)	3,150,428	Russia
	British Museum	London	1753	Archaeology and art	92,000 m (990,000 sq ft)	65,752 m (707,750 sq ft)	More than 8,000,000 (largest in the world)	United Kingdom
	National Museum of China	Beijing	1959	Archaeology and art	191,900 m (2,066,000 sq ft)	65,000 m (700,000 sq ft)	More than 1.4 million	China
	Grand Egyptian Museum	Giza	2024 (projected)	Archaeology	81,000 m (870,000 sq ft)	38,000 m (410,000 sq ft)	over 100,000 artifacts	Egypt
	Museum of Science and Industry	Chicago	1933	Science and technology		37,000 m (400,000 sq ft)	more than 35,000	United States
	Minneapolis Institute of Art	Minneapolis	1883	Art	50,600 m (545,000 sq ft)	32,000 m (340,000 sq ft)	More than 100,000	United States
	National Museum of Natural History	Washington, D.C.	1910	Natural history	123,000 m (1,320,000 sq ft)	30,200 m (325,000 sq ft)	(Artifacts not samples)	United States
	Victoria and Albert Museum	London	1852	Art		30,000 m (320,000 sq ft)	2,278,183 (60,124 on display)	United Kingdom
	Metropolitan Museum of Art	New York City	1870	Art	190,000 m (2,000,000 sq ft)			United States
	Palace Museum	Beijing	1925	Archaeology and art	150,000 m (1,600,000 sq ft)		1,862,690	China
	National Museum of Korea	Seoul	1945	Archaeology and art	138,156.26 m (1,487,101.6 sq ft)			South Korea
	National Gallery of Art	Washington, D.C.	1937	Art	120,000 m (1,300,000 sq ft)	25,200 m (271,000 sq ft)	More than 150,000	United States
	Art Institute of Chicago	Chicago	1879	Art	93,000 m (1,000,000 sq ft)		Almost 300,000	United States
	Israel Museum	Jerusalem	1965	Art	80,000 m (860,000 sq ft)	19,000 m (200,000 sq ft)		Israel
	National Museum of American History	Washington, D.C.	1964	History	70,000 m (750,000 sq ft)		More than 1.8 million	United States
	Museum of Modern Art	New York City	1929	Art	65,800 m (708,000 sq ft)	15,400 m (166,000 sq ft)	Almost 200,000	United States
	National Gallery Singapore	Singapore	2015	Art	64,000 m (690,000 sq ft)		More than 9,000	Singapore
	National Air and Space Museum	Washington, D.C.	1946	Aerospace	63,800 m (687,000 sq ft)	14,970.9 m (161,145 sq ft)	More than 60,000	United States
	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston	Boston	1870	Art	57,315.3 m (616,937 sq ft)	20,556.4 m (221,267 sq ft)	Almost 500,000	United States
	MASS MoCA	North Adams	1999	Art	56,000 m (600,000 sq ft)	23,000 m (250,000 sq ft)	No permanent collection	United States
	The Henry Ford	Dearborn	1929	History	48,600 m (523,000 sq ft)			United States
	National Gallery	London	1824	Archaeology and art	46,396 m (499,400 sq ft)			United Kingdom
	Three Gorges Museum	Chongqing	2005	Archaeology and art	45,098 m (485,430 sq ft)	23,225 m (249,990 sq ft)		China
	Vatican Museums	Vatican City	1506	Art	42,000 m (450,000 sq ft)			Vatican City
	National Museum of Anthropology	Mexico City	1825	Archaeology			600,000	Mexico
	Shandong Art Museum	Jinan	1977	Art				China
	Birmingham Museum of Art	Birmingham	1951	Art	17,000 m (180,000 sq ft)		27,000	United States
	Arsenal (Biennale)	Venice	1895	Art				Italy
	Musée National d'Art Moderne	Paris	1947	Art				France
	Musée d'Orsay	Paris	1986	Art				France
	San Francisco Museum of Modern Art	San Francisco	1935	Art	460,000 sq ft (43,000 m)	170,000 sq ft (16,000 m)		United States
	Museo del Prado	Madrid	1819	Art				Spain
	Denver Art Museum	Denver	1918	Art				United States
	Egyptian Museum	Cairo	1902	Archaeology				Egypt
	Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo	São Paulo	1951	Art				Brazil
	Dia Beacon	Beacon	2003	Art				United States
	Dallas Museum of Art	Dallas	1903	Art				United States
	Museo Reina Sofía	Madrid	1992	Art				Spain
	National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art	Gwacheon	1969	Art				South Korea
	Detroit Institute of Arts	Detroit	1885	Art				United States
	Tokyo National Art Center	Tokyo	2007	Art				Japan
	National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts	Taichung	1988	Art				Taiwan
	National Gallery Prague (Veletržní)	Prague	1796	Art				Czech Republic
	Indianapolis Museum of Art	Indianapolis	1883	Art				United States
	Bavarian National Museum	Munich	1855	Art				Germany
	Capital Museum	Beijing	1981	Archaeology and art				China
	Montreal Museum of Fine Arts	Montreal	1860	Art				Canada
	National Gallery of Victoria (St Kilda Road)	Melbourne	1861	Art				Australia
	Palais de Tokyo	Paris	2001	Art				France
	Salar Jung Museum	Hyderabad	1855	Art				India
	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts	Richmond	1934	Art				United States
	Tate Modern	London	2000	Art				United Kingdom
	Cleveland Museum of Art	Cleveland	1913	Art				United States
	National Gallery of Canada	Ottawa	1880	Art				Canada
	Canadian Museum of History	Ottawa	1856	History	75,000 m (810,000 sq ft)	25,000 m (270,000 sq ft)		Canada
	Art Gallery of Ontario	Toronto	1900	Art				Canada
	Hamburger Kunsthalle	Hamburg	1869	Art				Germany
	Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen	Rotterdam	1849	Art				Netherlands
	Houston Museum of Fine Arts	Houston	1900	Art		27,870 m (300,000 sq ft)	~70,000	United States
	National Gallery of Modern Art	New Delhi	1954	Art				India
	Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille	Lille	1809	Art				France
	Pinakothek der Moderne	Munich	2002	Art				Germany
	Rijksmuseum	Amsterdam	1800	Art				Netherlands
	Tretyakov Gallery (Krymsky Val)	Moscow	1985	Art				Russia
	MUDAM	Luxembourg City	2006	Art	10,500 m (113,000 sq ft)			Luxembourg

See also

• List of largest art museums
• List of largest buildings
• List of most visited museums
• List of national museums

Notes

References

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14. "Minneapolis Travel Guide". KAYAK. Retrieved 3 April 2022. Spread over 32,000 square meters of gallery space, admission is completely free, and it's well worth paying a visit.
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