Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts

Housed in a graceful colonial-era building not far from the Temple of Literature, this museum holds the country's foremost collection of Vietnamese art, spanning ancient sculpture, folk painting, lacquer, silk works and modern canvases. Galleries trace the evolution of national artistic traditions, including striking wooden statues salvaged from old pagodas and revolutionary-era paintings. The blend of religious carving, ethnic craft and twentieth-century fine art gives a broad survey of the country's visual culture.