Reopened in November 2009 following renovation, Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology is one of the oldest in the world. It houses art and antiquities from the civilisations of the ancient world to the present day.
Established in 1683, the museum's collections are world-renowned, with highlights such as the "Luristan Bronzes", Dark Age jewellery, Guy Fawkes' lantern and Oliver Cromwell's death mask.
The Department of Western Art extends from the European Middle Ages to the work of living artists and includes a wide range of fine and applied arts. Among the most celebrated treasures are drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo and other Old Masters.
The Department of Eastern Art is best known for Chinese ceramics and 20th-century painting, as well as Japanese painting and Indian sculpture, while there are some 900 plaster casts of original statues and reliefs of the Greek and Roman periods. It houses many casts of Classical sculpture (5th and 4th centuries BC), as well as important Hellenistic and Roman imperial material.
The museum constantly adds to its collections. Previous important acquisitions include a major portrait by Titian, a terracotta bust by Rysbrack, a 12th-century Chinese bodhisattva, an Anglo-Saxon cross and a Khmer sculpture.