The DIA holds one of the deepest collections in the United States, with more than 65,000 works spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Its most famous holding is the Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera, painted in 1932 and 1933 across all four walls of the Rivera Court — a fresco cycle celebrating the men and machines of the Ford River Rouge plant. The collection also includes Van Eyck's St Jerome in his Study, Rembrandt's Visitation, Bruegel's Wedding Dance, and Van Gogh's self-portrait with straw hat, the first Van Gogh acquired by an American museum.
The building itself, a Beaux-Arts marble pile by Paul Cret completed in 1927, is a Midtown landmark. Free admission is offered to residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties; everyone else pays a modest fee. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.