Works of Art Overview

The Walters is unusual among world museums for the outstanding quality of its collections and for the range of its holdings, which span some 55 centuries, from ancient Egyptian art to late 19th-century European paintings and decorative objects. Derived largely from the collection of Baltimore industrialist William T. Walters and his son, Henry Walters, the collection was donated to the city of Baltimore in 1931 and supplemented thereafter by donations and purchases. The Walters Art Museum houses the highest artistic achievements of both well-known and anonymous artists from nearly every corner of the world. Among its thousands of treasures are masterpieces of Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Islamic, Medieval, Renaissance, and 18th- and 19th-century European and American art, an outstanding group of East Asian bronzes and Asian ceramics, as well as one of the worlds finest manuscript and rare book collections.