The Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum started with the gift from collector and philanthropist Henry Walters of his extensive art collection, two buildings, and an endowment to the city of Baltimore, “for the benefit of the public.” The museum, then called the Walters Art Gallery, opened in November 1934, in the Palazzo building on North Charles Street.

The Walters' collection of ancient art includes examples from Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Rome, Etruria and the Near East. Highlights include two monumental 3,000-pound statues of the Egyptian lion-headed fire goddess Sekhmet, the Walters Mummy, alabaster reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Greek gold jewelry, including the Greek bracelets from Olbia on the shores of the Black Sea, the Praxitelean Satyr, a large assemblage of Roman portrait heads, a Roman bronze banquet couch, and marble sarcophagi from the tombs of the prominent Licinian and Calpurnian families.