The Oldest Public Museums in the World

The Capitoline Museums opened to Rome public in 1734, the British Museum followed in 1759 from Hans Sloane bequest, and the Uffizi gallery, though open by request since the 1580s, formally opened in 1765. The Ashmolean beat them all in 1683 with the world first university museum.

Before them, collections were princely cabinets seen by invitation. The public museum, free or cheap, belongs to the Enlightenment idea that knowledge belongs to everyone..