MoMA

Starry Night, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Monet's water lilies within three rooms

Three women founded it in 1929, nine days after the Wall Street crash, and it went on to define the canon of modern art for the rest of the century, in a hang so influential that art history departments still argue with it. The 2019 expansion widened the story considerably and rehangs the collection every few months so that the sequence keeps changing.

It is smaller and more finishable than the Met, which makes it the better choice if you have one afternoon and want to leave having seen things rather than corridors.