New Walk Museum and Art Gallery

Description:

• This multipurpose museum has two distinctly separate features. It contains exhibits of archaeology and natural history: a dinosaur bone found in a field near Leicester; a collection of Egyptian mummies and artifacts brought back to the Midlands by Thomas Cook, the 19th-century travel mogul; and geological exhibits. There is also a collection of paintings by British and European artists (including some by Gainsborough) from the 18th through 20th centuries. The collection of early-20th-century canvasses by German expressionists is one of the largest in Europe. In 2005, the museum added three art galleries: a permanent collection of modern art including such favorites as Degas and Pissarro; a gallery devoted to German expressionism; and a third thematic gallery, highlighting diversity in art, particularly that of south Asia, China, the Caribbean, and Africa.

• © Frommer's 2012