Hotels near the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology is Britain's oldest public museum. It houses the University of Oxford's collections of art and antiquities from the civilisations of the ancient world to the present day.

Established in 1683, the museum's collections are world-renowned, with highlights such as the "Luristan Bronzes", Dark Age jewellery, Guy Fawkes' lantern and Oliver Cromwell's death mask.

The Department of Western Art extends from the European Middle Ages to the work of living artists and includes a wide range of fine and applied arts. Among the most celebrated treasures are drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo and other Old Masters.

The Department of Eastern Art is best known for Chinese ceramics and 20th-century painting, as well as Japanese painting and Indian sculpture. It also houses many casts of Classical sculpture (5th and 4th centuries BC), as well as important Hellenistic and Roman imperial material.