Worth the trip
A running list of the exhibitions our editors think justify the flight, the train, or the long drive — as often to a regional museum with an extraordinary show as to a marquee museum.
A Frida Kahlo show in Richmond and a Vermeer in The Hague are the same kind of event: a rare loan, in a room built to hold it, at a museum that has earned the trust. We treat them equally.
A Caravaggio in Charlotte, with the Longhi collection around it
The Fondazione Roberto Longhi's Boy Bitten by a Lizard anchors more than 40 Baroque paintings at Mint Museum Uptown — the first Caravaggio shown in North Carolina this century.
The rest of the list
Opens 23 SeptParis · FranceCézanne, and everyone who came after
Seventy Cézannes beside a hundred-odd works by the painters who claimed him — Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian, Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley — at the Grand Palais from September 23.
Grand Palais · September 23, 2026 – January 17, 2027
Until 11 Jul 2027London · United KingdomThe Bayeux Tapestry crosses the Channel
For the first time in nearly a millennium, the 70-metre embroidery leaves France — on view at the British Museum from September 2026.
British Museum · September 10, 2026 – July 11, 2027
Until 17 Jan 2027Amsterdam · NetherlandsKusama, complete: Amsterdam gets the full retrospective
Two floors of the Stedelijk, seven decades of work, a new Infinity Mirror Room — organized with Fondation Beyeler and Museum Ludwig.
Stedelijk Museum · September 11, 2026 – January 17, 2027
Until 31 Jan 2027San Francisco · United StatesTreasures of the Pharaohs opens its American tour in San Francisco
130 artifacts from Egyptian museums — monumental sculpture, gold jewelry, decorated sarcophagi — at the de Young before moving to the Kimbell in 2027.
de Young Museum · August 1, 2026 – January 31, 2027
Opens 21 NovLondon · United KingdomAll nine Van Eyck portraits, together for the first time
The National Gallery assembles every known painted portrait by Jan van Eyck — half of his surviving output — in one room.
National Gallery · November 21, 2026 – April 11, 2027