The Harvard art museums house some 160,000 works in three collections: the Fogg Art Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum. The exhibit spaces also serve as teaching and research facilities. If you prefer not to explore on your own, take a guided tour of the Fogg daily at 11am, of the Busch-Reisinger daily at 1pm (both year-round), or of the Sackler at 2pm daily September through June, Wednesdays only in July and August.

The Fogg Art Museum (32 Quincy St., near Broadway) centers on an impressive 16th-century Italian stone courtyard, with two floors of galleries opening off it. Each of the 19 rooms shows something different -- 17th-century Dutch and Flemish landscapes, 19th-century British and American paintings and drawings, French paintings and drawings from the 18th century through the Impressionist period, and contemporary sculpture. Changing exhibits often draw on the museum's extensive collections of paintings, drawings, prints, and photos.

The Busch-Reisinger Museum in Werner Otto Hall (enter through the Fogg) is devoted to the painting, sculpture, and decorative art of northern and central Europe, specifically Germany. Particularly notable are the early-20th-century collections, including works by Klee, Feininger, Kandinsky, and artists and designers associated with the Bauhaus.

The Arthur M. Sackler Museum (485 Broadway, at Quincy St.) houses the university's collections of Asian, ancient, and Islamic art. They include internationally renowned Chinese jades and cave reliefs, superb Roman sculpture, Korean ceramics, Greek vases, and Persian miniature paintings and calligraphy.