National galleries: the art of making nations

Are national galleries different from other kinds of art gallery or museum?

What value is there for the nation in a collection of international masterpieces?

How are national galleries involved in the construction national art?

This book undertakes a panoramic view of a type of national institution - which are sometimes called national museums of fine art - that is now found in almost every nation on earth.

Adopting a richly illustrated, globally inclusive, comparative view, Simon Knell argues that national galleries should not be understood as 'great galleries' but as peculiar sites where art is made to perform in acts of nation building.