Where is the article going? There are so many museums in the world this article will either be a very long list or there will be debates about what to include. Need to narrow down to themes. --Traveler100 (talk) 22:22, 4 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

I largely agree with you. But not everyone does, because the idea of a museums article was very popular when I removed it from the requested articles page. --Comment by Selfie City (talk about my contributions) 23:00, 4 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

I think that the article can explain some of the background to museums, which generally were not created for the benefit of travellers. It can also say how to get the most out of a visit to a museum, which includes choosing the best time to visit. In large cities this can also include choosing which of the many museums to visit. I would suggest that the one thing that the article should not have is a long list of museums. AlasdairW (talk)

We could mention deals like "every state owned museum is free on Sundays" or the likes if they apply for entire countries... Hobbitschuster (talk) 23:23, 11 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

Swept in from the pub

I note that we don't yet have an article on Medical collections and related musuems that are open to the public.

A quick web search found a few UK based ones, but I was sure there were some anatomical collections in Europe as well.

Would Medical Museums and collections be a viable topic? Assuming someone was able to write an appropriate introduction. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 07:30, 22 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

Probably. You could include anatomy collections, such as the preserved (skinless) bodies at https://bodyworlds.com/exhibitions/#permanent WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:06, 22 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

I don't know if this is relevant, but there are several landmarks related to John Snow in London. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is often considered to be the father of modern epidemiology, as marked out the home addresses of cholera patients on a map and was able to trace the source of the epidemic using that data. The dog2 (talk) 03:26, 23 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

Shameless plug for the UB Museum of Neuroanatomy in North Buffalo. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:38, 23 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

I'd probably just call it Medical Museums and explain in the article that it includes anyplace with significant collections. The "and Collections" makes the title unnecessarily long. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 11:05, 23 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

Alternatively, since we already have a Museums article, I could suggest creating a new section in that article that can be branched off into a separate article once it gets too long. The dog2 (talk) 15:03, 23 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

Not sure it'd be a good idea to start listing individual museums in that article. Powers ^(talk) 02:31, 25 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

That's what I was thinking... Does anyone want to start writing a lede for an article, to scope it? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 17:46, 25 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

The article says security at a museum entrance

"is more likely if the museum's collections are high profile, of a certain nature, or deal with particular topics."

High profile, yes. But I honestly can't tell what "of a certain nature, or deal with particular topics" is talking about. Can we phrase it in a more specific way or give an example? —Granger (talk · contribs) 12:24, 18 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

The Jewish museum in Berlin has airport style security. I know of no other museum in Berlin that does. Hobbitschuster (talk) 15:13, 18 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

That would be one type. Any museum likely to attract vandals or thieves may deem such measures necessary – but the wording is now begging the question, it should be reworded. –LPfi (talk) 11:50, 19 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, the Jewish museum in Berlin is a good example. On that basis maybe the sentence should say something like "is more likely if the museum is high profile or if its subject might put it at risk." —Granger (talk · contribs) 12:48, 19 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

w:Bruce Schneier on Museum Security Pashley (talk) 04:30, 20 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

I wonder if we should have a brief discussion of this. As we know, the British Museum in London, the Met in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Pergamon in Berlin and the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg all contain numerous looted artefacts on display. The dog2 (talk) 19:15, 5 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

What are the travel-related implications? Is the implication that it's better to travel to Iraq to see Babylonian and Assyrian artifacts than to see them in London? Or that it's a different experience? Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Incredible that until I added Tokyo and Cairo, the entire continents of Asia and Africa were unlisted. South America remains unlisted. Isn't that absurd? Could we please have a more reasonable list? I don't want to subtract European cities; in fact, a few more might be added (maybe Munich, Vienna...), but it just can't be the case that there are no places with great museums in Asia and Africa other than Tokyo and Cairo and noplace in South America. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:55, 12 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Ikan Kekek: Taipei has the National Palace Museum which is indeed world class, but I don't know how its other museums fare by world standards. For instance, Wellington's Te Papa is a world class museum, but I wouldn't list Wellington here because its other museums would usually not be considered world class. As for Seoul, I know there's the National Museum of Korea, though I haven't been there. I did visit Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon kings, and it is excellent, and I guess you could consider it a museum, but it's not like the Met or the British Museum where you look at artifacts in glass cabinets. On my last trip back to Singapore, the museums there are now pretty nice, but their collections are almost certainly not world-renowned like what you see in New York City, London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin or Saint Petersburg, which is to be expected given that Singapore is a young country that never had a colonial empire. The dog2 (talk) 15:56, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I am more tempted to list Auckland rather than Wellington. Auckland Museum is in the same league as Te Papa, and the Art Gallery, Maritime Museum and MOTAT are good supporting acts. AlasdairW (talk) 23:56, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I can testify that Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador, Recife, Santos Dumont and Brumadinho all are home to great museums of the "must-see" category. Ibaman (talk) 16:31, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

My feeling is that a city with a single fantastic museum should be listed for that museum. I'd give Michelin ratings for comparison: An attraction that's rated 3 stars is worth a trip (not a detour from some more or less nearby place but an entire trip) all by itself. Any museum you'd give that description to should put a city on our map, in my opinion. Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:21, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I would also put the Museo del Oro in Bogota in the category of world-class must see museums. I would also consider Wellington's Te Papa a must-see museum for anyone visiting New Zealand. I'm on the fence about whether or not to include Singapore. Its government-run museums are very well-designed, especially the new National Gallery that was converted from the old Supreme Court and City Hall, and museum buffs will certainly have a good time there. But it doesn't have the kind of world famous art pieces that you'd find the the Louvre, British Museum, Uffizi, the Met or the Prado. The dog2 (talk) 17:33, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

So, keeping in mind that there are dozens of French provincial museums that have some great works of art but are not the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Orsay or Orangerie and don't provide good cause to list the cities in question, don't list Singapore. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:33, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Unusually the list of destinations is of cities with several museums, rather than a list of individual museums. The introduction to the list says "Some cities are famous for high concentrations of excellent museums:", so a village with the world's best museum (or a museum showing the history of museums) can't be listed here. A 3 star museum doesn't get a listing unless there are some 2 star ("worth a detour") museums nearby. AlasdairW (talk) 20:59, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I've added a few more but to be fair, it's difficult to find museums with the same quality as major Western museums outside the West, simple because other countries did not have these large colonial empires from which they could acquire artifacts for display in museums. And also, most non-Western countries are poor by comparison so they struggle to find the money to maintain world class museums. The dog2 (talk) 23:17, 17 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ FWIW, I agree with AlasdairW that we should only list cities that have at least a decent "supporting cast" to "back up" the main world-class museum. Otherwise, this list would become too long. And well, I haven't been to Auckland, so I will leave the judgement who have actually visited both Auckland and Wellington. The dog2 (talk) 15:14, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

@STW932: Do you think Xi'an and perhaps Suzhou and Hangzhou should be listed, or are there not enough top quality museums? I added Shanghai since you could fudge it in given that the Shanghai Museum and China Art Museum would be considered must-sees in my view.

@ChubbyWimbus: Since you seem particularly familiar with Japan, do you think Kyoto should get a listing? The dog2 (talk) 15:46, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

How should we define "top quality museums"? Can we consider all the national grade 1 museums to be top quality museums? And how many top quality museums does a city need in order to qualify for this list?

According to Baidu Baike, Xi'an has seven national grade 1 museums and there are there are three more nearby in Xianyang. Hangzhou has twelve national grade 1 museums, Suzhou has two, Nanjing has five, Nanchang has five, Qingdao has five, Wuhan has six, Guangzhou has eight, Chengdu has seven, and Chongqing has seven. STW932 (talk) 17:41, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

... how about WIAA? how about WV:Avoid long lists? Is this article really a must-have in Wikivoyage? just digressing here. Ibaman (talk) 17:46, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

@STW932: I know this will be subjective, but perhaps we can only consider museums that most international visitors would consider worth it to make a trip to the city specifically to visit. The dog2 (talk) 20:59, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

We could restrict the list of cities to the top 9 cities that visitors could spend a whole week visiting world class museums e.g. - London, Washington, Berlin... Then have a separate list of 9 museums that are significant in the history of museums e.g. - Capitoline Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao... AlasdairW (talk) 21:39, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

That could work but it would lead to an overrepresentation of European and North American cities. If I had to pick a list, it would be London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, Florence, New York City and Washington, D.C. And it would be a toss up between Chicago and Saint Petersburg for the last one. The dog2 (talk) 22:18, 18 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

We can't just have museums featuring European art and so forth. If that's what this becomes, it should be turned into a topic on European or "Western" art museums or just museums of art. There are also museums of history, archaeology, science, technology, natural history, and many other fields. Ikan Kekek (talk) 00:30, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

But I want to add Boston, primarily for the Boston Museum of Art and the Gardiner Museum, but look at Boston#Museums for a summary. I think it belongs. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:44, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

And I think Athens needs to be added. Look at Athens#Museums and galleries. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:55, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Okay, in the field of archaeology, I would like to nominate the new Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan (near Chengdu). I personally visited the museum two years ago and was quite impressed (even after having visited the old Sanxingdui Museum a five years earlier). And yes, I do think it's worth going to Chengdu just to see that one museum. STW932 (talk) 06:02, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Go ahead and add it. Chengdu#Museums lists 7, though one is listed in the previous subsection (Arts), with more in the "Greater Chengdu" subsection of "See." Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:05, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Talking about archaeology made me think of the Museo Archeologico in Naples, which also has a great painting museum, the Capodimonte. A good argument could be made for including it in the list (see Naples#Museums), but this list could get very long. Instead of a long list, should we summarize which museums are most notable in each of the listed cities? That itself could get long in cities like London, Paris, Rome and Washington. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:10, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

Perhaps we should have separate city lists for each geographical region. Or maybe we could list museums instead of cities and divide that list based on field or category. STW932 (talk) 11:19, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

(edit conflict) I was just about to suggest the same thing as STW932. Museums and museum categories are probably more meaningful. Also, regarding Kyoto, yes, it has both art and historic/cultural museums that are highly regarded in Japan. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 11:26, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply

I think listing museums by category could be good. I'm not sure it should replace lists of destinations, though. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:23, 19 March 2025 (UTC)Reply