Art museums are some of the largest buildings in the world. The world's most pre-eminent museums have also engaged in various expansion projects through the years, expanding their total exhibition space.
List The following is a list of art museums ranked according to their gallery space where published by reliable sources. Only museums with more than of gallery space are included.
Rank Building Name City Country Gallery spacein m2 (ft2) YearestablishedLouvre Paris 1792British Museum London 70,000 (753,000) 1753State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg The 100,000 square meters mentioned on the official website are the total exhibition area of the institution, which includes sites outside of St. Petersburg. The figure given here is the one that previously appeared on the official website, corresponding only to the site of Saint-Petersburg. Mention of this number appears on some websites, or in the book "Tourism in Russia: A Management Handbook" (p.158). 1764National Museum of China Beijing 1959Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City 1870Vatican Museums Vatican City (Rome) 1506Grand Egyptian MuseumGiza2023 Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec Quebec City The MNBAQ complex includes 4 different buildings within the same site, all interconnected through a series of underground tunnels. Included within the MNBAQ complex are the Central Pavillion, the Charles Baillairgé Pavilion, the Gérard-Morisset Pavilion, and the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion, which was opened in 2016, and increased the gallery and exhibition space by 90%. 1933Victoria and Albert Museum London Does not include V&A Dundee, V&A East Museum and V&A East Storehouse, V&A Wedgwood Collection, or Young V&A 1852Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 1800Houston Museum of Fine Arts Houston 1900National Museum of Korea Seoul 1909Germanisches NationalmuseumNuremberg1852Art Institute of Chicago Chicago 65,000 square feet expansion adds 30% of gallery space 1879Nanjing MuseumNanjing1933National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C. 1937Museo del Prado Madrid 1819Mystetskyi Arsenal Kyiv 2006 National Museum of Anthropology Mexico City 1964MASS MoCA North Adams, Massachusetts 1999National Gallery of Australia Canberra 1967Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Boston 1870Art & History MuseumBrussels 1835Dia:Beacon Beacon, New York 2003Royal Museum of Fine Arts AntwerpAntwerp1810 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles 1910Newark Museum of Art Newark, New Jersey 1909Shandong Art Museum Jinan 1977National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne 1861Israel Museum Jerusalem 1965Tokyo National MuseumTokyo1872Pergamon MuseumBerlin1910Musée National d'Art Moderne Paris 1947National Gallery Singapore Singapore 2015Minneapolis Institute of Art Minneapolis 1883 Museu Oscar NiemeyerCuritiba2002M+Kowloon2021Arsenal (Biennale) Venice 1895Musée d'Orsay Paris 1986Indianapolis Museum of Art Indianapolis 1883Denver Art Museum Denver 1918Humboldt ForumBerlin2020San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco 1935Museum of Modern Art New York City 1929Museo di CapodimonteNaples1757Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia 1876Dallas Museum of Art Dallas 1903Museo Reina Sofía Madrid References for historical building + extension 1992 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville, Arkansas The original 2011 facility comprises 93,000 square feet (8,600 square meters) of gallery space out of a total floor area of 200,000 square feet. The museum announced that its 2026 project will expand gallery space by 65% or about 60,000 square feet (5,600 square meters). Added to the existing gallery space, the expanded museum will offer 153,000 square feet of gallery and exhibition space, while the site's total building area will be over 300,000 square feet. These measurements exclude The Momentary, a contemporary art annex opened by Crystal Bridges in 2020, which offers 24,000 square feet of gallery space in a converted 63,000-square-foot former food processing plant in downtown Bentonville. 2011MMCA, Gwacheon Gwacheon 1969Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit 1885National Historical Museum Sofia 1973Tokyo National Art Center Tokyo 2007Milwaukee Art Museum Milwaukee 1888National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Taichung 1988National Gallery Prague (Veletržní) Prague 1796Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond, Virginia 1934Bavarian National Museum Munich 1855Uffizi Florence 1865Capital Museum Beijing 1981Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Montreal 1860National Gallery London The Sainsbury Wing has 450,000 square feet of exhibition space (Victoria Newhouse, Towards a New Museum, 1998, Monacelli Press, p.182) and accounts for roughly a third of the museum 1824Palais de Tokyo Paris 2001Hamburger Kunsthalle Hamburg 1869 National Museum of Norway Oslo 1842Salar Jung Museum Hyderabad 1855 Barcelona 1934 National Archaeological Museum, Naples Naples 1777Tate Modern London 2000Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland 1913National Gallery of Canada Ottawa 1880Staatsgalerie StuttgartStuttgart1843Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam 1849National Gallery of Modern Art New Delhi 1954Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille Lille 1809Pinakothek der Moderne Munich 2002Tretyakov Gallery (Krymsky Val) Moscow 1985Art Gallery of Ontario Toronto 1900 Taipei Fine Arts Museum Taipei 1983 Kunsthaus Zurich 1910Bode MuseumBerlin1904 Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney 1874 Capitoline Museums Rome 1471 Fondazione Prada Milan 1993 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 1997 Perez Art Museum Miami Miami According to Handel Architects, the total programmable space for the Perez Art Museum in Miami is up to 200,000 square feet, but the interior of the building is 120,000 square feet, while the exterior space is 80,000 square feet. 2013 Shaanxi History Museum Xi'an 1991 HangarBicocca Milan 2012 Tibet Museum Lhasa 1999 Portland Art Museum Portland, Oregon 1892 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Budapest 1906 National September 11 Memorial & Museum New York City 2014Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological MuseumPalermo1866Regional Museum AccascinaMessina1806 Carnegie Museum of Art Pittsburgh 1896 Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin 1996 Kunstmuseum Basel Basel 1936 MAXXI Rome 2010 Museo Egizio Turin 1824 Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf 1913 MMCA, Seoul Seoul 2013 Saint Louis Art Museum St. Louis 1881 Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv 5,000 square meters original exhibition space, doubled by extension 1932 National Palace Museum Taipei 1925 Mimara Museum Zagreb 1980 Almaty Museum of ArtsAlmaty 2025 National Archaeological Museum Madrid 1867Lucas Museum of Narrative ArtLos Angeles2026 Musée Fabre Montpellier 1828 Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo São Paulo 1905 Bardo National Museum Tunis 1888 Cité de l'Architecture et du PatrimoineParis 1879 National Gallery Oslo 1842Museum LudwigCologne 1976 Power Station of ArtShanghai 2012 De Young Museum San Francisco 1895 Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington, D.C. 1829 Musée du quai Branly Paris 2006 High Museum of ArtAtlanta1905 Louvre Abu DhabiAbu Dhabi 2017 Liaoning Provincial MuseumShenyang 1949Gallerie di Piazza ScalaMilan 2011National Art Museum of China Beijing 1958 Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, California1885 San Antonio Museum of ArtSan Antonio 1981GemäldegalerieBerlin 1830National Archaeological MuseumAthens 1866Neues MuseumBerlin 1855Petit Palais Paris 1902Stedelijk MuseumAmsterdam 1874Sprengel MuseumHanover1979
Future The following is a list of art museums projected to offer at least of gallery space in the future or increase their current gallery space, following construction, expansion, or renovation.
Building Name City Country Projected total gallery spacein m2 (ft2) Project type Planned completion KANAL – Centre Pompidou Brussels New museum November 2026 Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi This figure incorporates 13,000 square meters for special exhibitions and 18,000 square metres for the permanent collection. New museum December 2026Toledo Museum of Art ToledoExpansion2027 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond The new building's total footprint will be 173,000 square feet, which includes 63,000 square feet of permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Expansion 2029Metropolitan Museum of Art New York The museum has announced that the new Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing will increase gallery space for the display of modern and contemporary art to reach 71,000 square feet. Since the current wing comprises 48,000 square feet of gallery space, it means that the new wing set to replace it will effectively add 23,000 square feet of new gallery space to the museum. Expansion 2030
See also
List of art museums List of most-visited art museums List of national museums List of single-artist museums
Notes
References