Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:2800 Grove Ave.
Richmond, Virginia
Tel:
(804) 340-1400
See the largest public Fabergé collection outside of Russia. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts houses a remarkable permanent collection of more than 20,000 works of art from almost every major culture in the world!
Featuring a diverse collection from Egyptian artifacts to Lichtenstein pop art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts boasts a memorable experience for art lovers. Visitors can spend the afternoon perusing pieces such as a life-size marble statue of Roman emperor Caligula, Monet's Iris by the Pond, and six magnificent Gobelin Don Quixote tapestries. But perhaps the biggest attractions here are a collection of Faberge eggs, formerly owned by the Russian imperial family, as well as the works of de Kooning, Gauguin, van Gogh, Delacroix, Matisse, Degas, Picasso, Gainsborough, and others.
Visitors will also enjoy antiquities from China, Japan, Egypt, Greece, Byzantium, Africa, and South America, art from India, Nepal, and Tibet, and an impressive collection of contemporary American art. Don't miss the VMFA Café, open in the Marble Hall and overlooking a waterfall cascading into a pool with a Maillol sculpture.
To get to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from Interstates 95 and 64, take exit 78, the Boulevard exit. Follow the Boulevard (Route 161 South) for 1 ½ miles. Turn right onto Kensington Avenue (Virginia Historical Society is at that corner). Take first left onto Sheppard Street and go straight for half a block. The entrance to the parking deck is on your left.
From Virginia Museum of Fine Arts:
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts houses a remarkable permanent collection of more than twenty thousand works of art from almost every major world culture. Especially noteworthy are the museum's collections of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Modern and Contemporary American art donated by Sydney and Frances Lewis; French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and British sporting art given by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon; American art acquired through the J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund; The Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé jeweled objects; and The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver. The museum's holdings of South Asian, Himalayan, and African art are among the finest in the nation.