One of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States, the Art Institute of Chicago is a gem of the city’s heritage. The original building is an ancient artwork in itself, constructed in 1893 and added to ever since. At first glance it looks like a parliament building, with stately architecture and elegant columns, as well as two statues of lions like sentinels at the entrance. But the museum’s real treasure is its encyclopedia-like collection of artworks, with highlights including Georges Seurat’s ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte’, Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Old Guitarist’, Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’ and Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’. Besides the classics, new and groundbreaking exhibits are added to it every year, with the most recent being the Modern Wing, expanding the museum to a size of almost one million square feet and cementing its monolithic status in the art world.