Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art has one of the finest collections in the United States and is entirely free — a fact that deserves emphasis, because the quality here would justify a substantial admission fee. The Cone Collection alone — Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir, and Gauguin assembled by two prescient Baltimore sisters in the early 20th century — would be the centrepiece of most paid museums.

The BMA also has strong holdings in contemporary art, African art, decorative arts, and prints. The sculpture garden is excellent and free to access even when the museum is closed. Located on the edge of the Johns Hopkins campus in Charles Village, a ten-minute drive or 30-minute bike ride from downtown. Do not miss the Matisse room.

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The BMA has the world's largest public collection of works by Henri Matisse — over 1,000 pieces — thanks largely to the Cone sisters, Baltimore collectors who befriended Matisse in Paris in the early 20th century and bought systematically from him for decades. Etta and Claribel Cone's entire collection was bequeathed to the museum on the condition that Baltimore be "a hospitable place for art."

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