Museum sights in Sarasota
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John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
This enormous and imposing Venetian Gothic and Italian Renaissance building (finished in 1929) boasts a first-rate collection of 17th-century, late-medieval, baroque and Renaissance French, Dutch and Spanish paintings and tapestries. Art works span 500 years, while the art museum library has a whopping 60,000 books spanning all art periods. The sculpture garden contains bronze replicas of ancient Greek and Roman figures.
You'll also find rotating modern exhibits and the Asolo Theater, a horseshoe-shaped, 300-seat theater that was originally built in the castle of Asolo, Italy, in 1798. After being dismantled in 1930 to make way for a movie theater, the theater was eventua…
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Classic Car Museum
This sexy museum, with hundreds of exotic and curvaceous cars, appeals to nostalgic travelers. Among the Rolls, you’ll find a 1905 Rapid Depot Wagon, an ’81 DeLorean, a 1932 Auburn speedster, a tiny 1958 Metropolitan, and that most sought-after transporter, a 1976 Plymouth Voyager Van. A small music room contains romantic radios, turntables and other ancient noisemakers. You can’t miss it as you drive north on US 41 – look for the Flintstones’ car outside.
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Circus Museum
This fascinating place contains the wild Barlow Animated Miniature Circus, original and elaborately carved circus wagons, the cannon used to blast the Flying Zacchinis into low orbit, sequined costumes, calliopes and dozens of rare circus posters. Circus fans will be pleased to know that the spirit of the circus is still alive and kicking in Sarasota, though it's no longer the winter home of Ringling Bros Circus.
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Museum of Asian Art
The focused collection at the Museum of Asian Art highlights art from China, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and Myanmar (Burma). It boasts the famous Yangtze River Collection of Chinese jades.
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