Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Sigmar Polke, Joseph Beuys, Paul Klee and Andreas Gursky are among the celebrated German artists who attended the famed Düsseldorf Arts Academy, cementing Düsseldorf’s reputation as a hub for modern and contemporary art. The city amassed a vast number of works by these and other 20th- and 21st-century artists; the collection is so large, in fact, that it’s housed in two separate museums, K20 and K21. If you’re not too exhausted after viewing all the Pablo Picassos, Andy Warhols and Gerhard Richters, along with 100-plus works by Paul Klee, in the K20, hop the shuttle bus (complimentary with a combination ticket) over to the K21. Inside this spectacular glass-domed former parliament building are some seriously challenging contemporary art and video installations by the likes of Nam Jun Paik and Chiharu Shiota.  A tip: Wear comfy clothes and shoes if you want to take full advantage of Tomás Saraceno’s climbable steel mesh installation “Orbit” in the dome of K21.