The Harvard Art Museums bring three previously separate collections — the Fogg Museum of Western art, the Busch-Reisinger Museum of Germanic art, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of ancient and Asian art — under one Renzo Piano–designed roof. The collection ranges from ancient Greek pottery to Picasso, with particular strength in German Expressionism and Impressionist painting. The building's interior courtyard, with its glass ceiling, is one of the more beautiful art-viewing spaces in New England.
The museums offer free admission to Cambridge residents and to visitors on selected days; otherwise the ticket price is reasonable. The upper floors of the building house the university's conservation labs, visible through glass — an unusual opportunity to see art restoration in progress. Across the street, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, designed by Le Corbusier (his only building in North America), adds another architectural note worth seeing from the outside.