Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Minneapolis Institute of Art keeps its permanent collection open without an admission charge, and behind its doors sits an encyclopedic museum of some 90,000 objects spanning 5,000 years. It grew out of a citizens' society of fine arts founded in 1883, and its neoclassical building went up in 1915.

You can cross continents in an afternoon here. A Roman marble Doryphoros, a copy of the lost bronze spear-bearer by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos, stands as one of the best surviving records of that famous figure. Nearby are Chinese bronzes and jades, Japanese prints, and a series of period rooms lifted whole from old houses.

Among the paintings, the picture people seek out is Rembrandt's 'Lucretia' of 1666, the Roman heroine shown at the moment of her suicide, a dagger in one hand and a cord in the other. It is one of two Rembrandt paintings of her, both from his last years. The collection runs on through van Gogh and a strong group of modern and contemporary art.