Finnish National Gallery

The Finnish National Gallery is the umbrella institution for Finland's most important state-owned art museums, organised as an independent foundation since 2014. It brings together the Ateneum, with its survey of Finnish art from 1809 to 1960, Kiasma for contemporary art in Steven Holl's striking building opposite parliament, the Sinebrychoff Art Museum of European old masters, and the central art archives. The combined collection runs to roughly 47,000 works, from Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Kalevala paintings and Helene Schjerfbeck to Eija-Liisa Ahtila. Becoming an independent foundation was part of a wider reform that pulled Helsinki's museums out of direct ministerial control. Visiting all three sites over two days gives a tight overview of 200 years of Finnish and European art.