The Saint Louis Art Museum sits at the top of Art Hill in Forest Park, in a Beaux-Arts palace built for the 1904 World's Fair and never demolished. The collection runs across world art from antiquity to the present, with particular strengths in Oceanic art, German Expressionism (one of the strongest collections outside Germany), and pre-Columbian work.
Admission is free, supported by a property tax voted in by St Louis residents. The expansion designed by David Chipperfield, opened in 2013, doubled the gallery space with a calm, minimal modern wing — itself worth visiting for the contrast with the original palace. Free admission applies to most of the museum; some temporary exhibitions charge.