20 MOST BEAUTIFUL MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD

The 20 Most Beautiful Museums in the World
By Emily Temple, Flavor Wire, 7 July 2012.

This week, we were blown away by this gorgeous concept for a “spiral garden museum” in Taipei, which sadly didn’t make it into the final round of the design competition and thus will never become a reality. Though we’re disappointed, the project reminded us of the gloriously beautiful museums that already exist in our wide world, so to bind our wounds over the Taipei garden museum (and to indulge in a little architecture candy) we’ve collected twenty of the most lovely here. After all, what better way to store and display some of the world’s greatest artwork than in a structure as well-designed and beautiful as the art itself? Click through to see our picks for the most beautiful museums from all over the world, and if we’ve missed your favourite - or if the Guggenheim makes you gag - let us know which ones you’d choose in the comments!

1. The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

Designed by I. M. Pei. Photo sources & more info: The Wild and iDesignArch.

2. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Founded by Catherine the Great in 1794. Photo sources & more info: Vacation Home and To Travelling.

3. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Original limestone building from the 1930s, modern extension designed by Steven Holl. Photos by Roland Halbe via The New York Times. [More information]

4. The Hanoi Museum, Vietnam

Designed by GMP Architects. Photo source & more info: The Design Home.

5. Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain

Designed by Frank Gehry. Photos: Wikimedia Commons. [More information]

6. The Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Photo sources & more info: The Feature Writer and Tourist Spots.

7. Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Photo sources & more info: Hello Dallas and Wikimedia Commons.

8. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art,
Humlebaek, Denmark

Photo sources & more info: Terminartors and Travel Japan Blog.

9. The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada

Photo sources & more info: Amazing Architectures and Lisa-S Flickr.

10. MAS Museum, Antwerp, Belgium

Designed by Neutelings Riedijk. Photo sources & more info: Visit Flanders and Arnewde.

11. The Louvre, Paris, France

Photo sources & more info: Interior Design Ideas.

12. The Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria

Photo sources & more info: Forschung and brunoat Flickr.

13. The Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

Designed by HOK. Photos by Morris Moreno, via Designwire.

14. The Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Once the home of the Dalai Lama, the building is now a Chinese museum. Photo sources & more info: RD Magazine and Wikipedia.

15. The Getty Centre, Los Angeles, California, USA

Photos: Mariotti and forum.98ia. [More information]

16. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Photo source & more info: Wikipedia.

17. Claude Monet’s House and Gardens, Giverny, France

Photo sources & more info: About.com and Giverny.

18. Moscow State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia

Photos: Wikimedia Commons. [More information]

19. Chora Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

Photos: Brodyaga and Lonely Planet. [More information]

20. Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil

Photos: Euqueroeviajar and Wikimedia Commons. [More information]

Top image: Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar (left) and Guggenheim, Spain (right).

[Source: Flavor Wire. Edited. Top image and some links added.]