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1. The Leopold Museum, Vienna
Founded by an eye doctor who bought up scandalous art for cheap, Vienna's Leopold Museum now holds the world's largest Egon Schiele collection, alongside Gustav Klimt masterpieces housed in a stark white limestone cube.
Mourning Woman (1912) by Egon SchieleLeopold Museum
Pushing boundaries, the museum once invited visitors to tour a male nude exhibition completely in the buff. It also tilted famous landscape paintings by a few degrees to starkly illustrate the catastrophic effects of global temperature rises.
Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in HeelsBata Shoe Museum Toronto
2. Bata Shoe Museum Toronto
Housed in an award-winning building designed by Raymond Moriyama to resemble an open shoebox with an askew lid, Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum holds the world's largest footwear collection, spanning over 15,000 artifacts across 4,500 years of global history.
Elton John's Platforms (1972-1975)Bata Shoe Museum Toronto
The collection ranges from ancient Egyptian sarcophagus sandals to French chestnut-crushing boots, spiked samurai bear-fur shoes, and Napoleon’s socks—alongside celebrity footwear like Elton John’s towering monogrammed silver platform boots.
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3. The Natural History Museum, London
Designed as a "Cathedral to Nature," London's Natural History Museum divides creatures: living species are exhibited in the west wing, while extinct beasts are displayed in the east. Terracotta was chosen specifically for the facade so smog and soot could be easily washed off.
Hans Sloane’s nautilus shellThe Natural History Museum
Inside, beneath a 25-meter blue whale skeleton, lies a hidden archive of 80 million specimens—including a 14,700-year-old human skull crafted into a drinking cup, Charles Darwin’s original pet tortoise, and a nautilus shell decorated with cherubim.
Manga LibraryOriginal Source: 横手市増田まんが美術館
4. Yokote Masuda Manga Museum
Located in Akita Prefecture, Japan, the Yokote Masuda Manga Museum is dedicated entirely to preserving original genga (hand-drawn manga artwork) rather than just final printed books, honoring the raw ink and pencil strokes of master illustrators.
Front by Takao YaguchiYokote Masuda Manga Museum
The museum houses an astonishing archive of over 400,000 original manga sheets. Visitors can view temperature-controlled storage vaults through glass windows and watch professional artists restore fading ink in dedicated open workshops.
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5. MMCA, Korea
Spread across four unique branches, South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) spans a scenic mountain park in Gwacheon, an imperial palace in Deoksugung, an old military command in Seoul, and a converted tobacco factory in Cheongju.
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Its Gwacheon branch famously houses Nam June Paik’s The More, The Better—a colossal, spiraling tower constructed from 1,003 vintage cathode-ray tube television monitors, built to commemorate the 1,003 Foundation Day of Korea for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
a panoramic view of the eye view of the times. (2020) by MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
Want to explore more brilliant museums? Immerse yourself in thousands of collections, from natural history to contemporary art, local heritage to high fashion, on Google Arts & Culture here.
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