The city is full of excellent museums, but when it comes to art, top status has to go to the Konstmuseum (goteborgskonstmuseum.se). This huge building brings the Kungsavenyn to an abrupt, commanding halt at its southern end. Before entering, take a minute to admire Gothenburg's most famous public artwork, the bronze Poseidon fountain out front. This statue once scandalized strait-laced citizens, who insisted on drastic penile-reduction surgery.
Inside the cavernous building a feast of art awaits, with many of history's greatest names on display. The exhibition is arranged chronologically over six floors: the higher you go, the more recent the era. The real highlights begin on the top two floors – the Renaissance collection includes works by Cranach and Veronese, and there’s a whole room of Rembrandts (including Knight with Falcon), while the baroque period is represented by Canaletto, among others.
On the top floor, Picasso gets an entire octagonal room to himself and trailblazers such as Renoir, Monet, Degas, Chagall, Cézanne and Gauguin splash color across the walls. The most valuable work in the collection, meanwhile, gets its own room – Van Gogh’s instantly recognizable Olive Grove, one in a series of paintings he completed while at a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Interestingly, the classic works are imaginatively interspersed with contemporary installations throughout.
Scandinavian masters such as Bruno Liljefors, Edvard Munch, Anders Zorn and Carl Larsson have pride of place in the Fürstenburg Galleries, with other highlights including a wonderful sculpture hall and the Hasselblad Center, home to rotating photography exhibitions featuring Nordic artists.
Allow at least two hours to see the museum’s highlights.
