The National Museum in Warsaw is the largest art museum in Poland, with a collection spanning ancient Egypt to the 20th century. The highlight for many visitors is the Gallery of Medieval Art — one of Europe's finest collections of medieval religious painting and sculpture. The Faras Gallery contains Nubian Christian frescoes from Sudan, excavated by a Polish-led expedition in the 1960s before the area was flooded by the Aswan Dam.
The museum also holds a substantial collection of Polish painting from the 19th and 20th centuries, including Jan Matejko's monumental historical canvases. The Battle of Grunwald painting — at 9.5 by 4.2 metres, one of the largest history paintings in the world — depicts Poland's greatest medieval victory over the Teutonic Knights in 1410.