How we work

Five steps, and they speak of the collection — not of the size of the building, not of visitor numbers, not of the ring of a name. We award the step and we change it when the collection changes, not when the museum is written about more often.

world-class

In the same rank as the world's leading museums.

outstanding

A strong collection: worth setting aside a day for.

significant

There are things here worth seeing.

for enthusiasts

Of interest to those already drawn to the subject.

niche

Valuable to a narrow circle, without wider recognition.

Four marks awarded on top of the scale, which do not change the step: they name a property the scale cannot express. A mark that cannot be justified by our own verified entry is not awarded.

underrated

The collection is stronger than its reputation: fewer people know it than it deserves

one of a kind

The collection has no counterpart — not in the country, not anywhere

read first

Without reading beforehand the collection reads as ornament; with it, the whole thing opens

quiet here

No crowds: you can look at your own pace and on your own

The order of reliability: a letter from the museum or a conversation with it, then the museum's own site, then open sources. Hours, price, address, collection and access are each checked separately and each carries its own date — it stands in the entry, beside what it was checked against. Hours and prices age fastest: anything older than three months marks itself and becomes work. A price we could not confirm is written as unconfirmed, not left over from last year.

Visitor reviews: there are enough of them everywhere, and they speak of the mood of whoever came, not of the collection. In their place stand the judgements of those whose name means something in this museum's field, with the source and the year. There is no paid placement: neither a place in the list nor a step of the scale can be bought, and that is the one thing we promise in advance.

A catalogue raisonné — the complete catalogue of a collection, in which every object holds the same place in the description, with its own number and date. Such catalogues are compiled over years, often by one person; our entries are built the same way. We write to museums and talk to those who keep collections and compile such catalogues, and it is from them that we take our measure, not from guidebooks.

This is an authored catalogue: the selection, the rating and every judgement belong to someone, not to “the editors”. What a museum tells us is taken seriously — a letter and the museum's own site are our highest authority on fact — but the decision stays with us. A museum cannot raise its own step, remove a critical judgement, or demand that a line about what it lacks be struck out.

Write to us — we will correct it and set a new date of checking. We answer for every figure and every date on these pages, and a mistake that has been pointed out costs less than one nobody noticed. Write to us.

Russian, English, Dutch and French stand equal here: none of them is “the main one”. To translate a page is not to translate its words — each language has its own quoted judgements, its own comparisons and its own voice. A museum's own name in its own language is never translated.