Coolest permanent collections

Among this institution's many assets is a rich, 4,000-piece Egyptian collection, which includes a gilded-ebony statue of Amenhotep III and, on the ceiling, a large-scale rendering of an ancient map of the cosmos, as well as a mummy preserved in its original coffin. Masterworks by Cézanne, Monet and Degas, part of an impressive European art collection, are displayed in the museum’s recently renovated Beaux-Arts Court. On the fifth floor, American paintings and sculptures include native son Thomas Cole’s The Pic-Nic and Louis Rémy Mignot’s Niagara. Don’t miss the renowned Pacific Island and African galleries (this was the first American museum to display African objects as art).

Set in a lovely park overlooking the Hudson River, the Cloisters houses the Met’s medieval art and architecture collections. A path winds through the peaceful grounds to a castle that seems to have survived from the Middle Ages. (It was built a mere 70 years ago, using pieces of five medieval French cloisters.) Be sure to check out the famous Unicorn Tapestries, the 12th-century Fuentidueña Chapel and the Annunciation Triptych by Robert Campin.

This institution housed in the 1908 Warburg Mansion, contains a fascinating collection of more than 28,000 works of art, artifacts and media installations. The two-floor permanent exhibition, “Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey,” examines how Judaism has survived and explores various Jewish identities throughout history.

For an institution devoted to erotica, this midtown museum is on the conservative side—ironic, considering it’s in NYC’s former Tenderloin District, which was chockablock with dance halls and brothels in the 1800s. The museum offers a tastefully presented collection of vintage girlie magazines, Victorian-era vibrators, blue movies and Real Dolls, plus rotating exhibits on prostitution, fetishism, homosexuality, masturbation and other semitaboo topics.

New York’s oldest museum, founded in 1804, was one of America’s first cultural and educational institutions. Highlights in the vast Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture include George Washington’s Valley Forge camp cot, a complete series of the extant watercolors from Audubon’s The Birds of America and the world’s largest collection of Tiffany lamps. A fascinating ongoing multimedia exhibition on slavery and its social, economic and political impact on New York is in the Luce Center.

This nirvana for boob-tube addicts and pop-culture junkies contains an archive of more than 100,000 radio and TV programs. Head to the fourth-floor library to search the computerized system for your favorite Star Trek or I Love Lucy episode, then walk down one flight to take a seat at your assigned console. (The radio listening room operates the same way.) There are screenings of modern cartoons, as well as public seminars and special presentations.

Like the Guggenheim, the Whitney is set apart by its unique architecture: It’s a Marcel Breuer–designed grey granite cube with an all-seeing upper-story ‘eye’ window. When Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a sculptor and art patron, opened the museum in 1931, she dedicated it to living American artists. Today, the Whitney holds about 15,000 pieces by nearly 2,000 artists, including Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Edward Hopper (the museum holds his entire estate), Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keeffe and Claes Oldenburg. Still, the museum’s reputation rests mainly on its temporary shows, particularly the exhibition everyone loves to hate, the Whitney Biennial. Held in even-numbered years, the Biennial remains the most prestigious (and controversial) assessment of contemporary art in America. The Whitney’s small midtown Altria branch, located in a corporate atrium space across the street from Grand Central Terminal, mounts solo commissioned projects. At the main building, there are free guided tours daily and live performances on select Friday nights. Sarabeth’s, the museum’s café, is open daily till 4:30pm, offering sandwiches and the like. In 2007, the Whitney confirmed plans to open a separate museum outpost in the new High Line park.