Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad

The Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad is one of the most remarkable museums in India, housing the world’s largest single collection assembled by one person. Nawab Mir Yusuf Ali Khan Salar Jung III, the Prime Minister of the Nizam of Hyderabad, spent a lifetime collecting art and artefacts from across the world. His extraordinary passion for collecting resulted in a treasure trove of over 46,000 art objects, manuscripts, paintings, bronzes, woodwork, ivory carvings, clocks, textiles, and weapons, sourced from Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and all regions of India. Established in 1951 following his death, the museum is now under the administration of the Government of India and is the third largest museum in the country by collection size. Among its most famous exhibits are the double statue of Mephistopheles and Marguerite, the remarkable jade artefacts from the Mughal period, the children’s section displaying Tipu Sultan’s mechanical tiger, and an extraordinary array of European silverware. Located on the banks of the Musi River in Hyderabad’s historic district, the museum is open Saturday through Thursday and closed on Fridays. It attracts visitors from around the world and serves as one of the most significant repositories of world art and culture accessible on the Indian subcontinent.