The Iziko South African National Gallery is the country's national art museum, holding around 8,000 works ranging from European old masters to twentieth-century South African painting and a growing collection of contemporary African art. The collection's strength is its sweep — it documents a difficult century of South African art-making more thoroughly than any other institution.
The building, a neat 1930 Cape Dutch revival pavilion on the edge of the Company's Garden, is small but well laid out. Temporary exhibitions occupy the main downstairs galleries; the permanent collection upstairs. Allow at least 90 minutes. The gallery is closed on Mondays.