Michelangelo's ceiling and the art of the popes.
Vatican City, Vatican City Founded 1506
The museums trace their start to 1506, when Pope Julius II put the newly found Laocoon statue on display. Over five centuries the popes built up one of the greatest art collections on earth.
A visit ends in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512 and the Last Judgment decades later.
Connected empires: Roman Empire
Art
Catherine the Great's collection in the Winter Palace.
Art
1,400 years of Islamic art in I. M. Pei's desert fortress.
Art
Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Art
A pink stone palace by the Arabian Sea.
Art
Treasures of the Chinese emperors, carried across the sea.
Art
5,000 years of art on Fifth Avenue.
Art
A rain of light under a floating dome.
Art
One family's collection from the court of Hyderabad.
Art
A royal palace turned into the world's most visited museum.
