The Museum's Collection of European Art comprises paintings, sculpture, and works on paper ranging from 1450 to 1950, a time frame that represents all the major art movements from the Renaissance through Impressionism and Modernism.

Works made before 1900 include fine examples of religious and mythological compositions, portraiture, landscape, and still life such as the Betrayal (1515) by Lucas Cranach I, the Study for the Head of Saint John the Evangelist (1611-1612) by Peter Paul Rubens, and the portrait of Philip, Lord Wharton (1639) by Anthony van Dyck.

Impressionist and later Modernist works include the Gardens of the Villa Moreno, Bordighera (1884) by Claude Monet, Christ in the Garden of Olives, (1889) by Paul Gauguin, The Sailors’ Barracks (1914) by Giorgio de Chirico, and significant paintings and sculptures by renowned artists Constantine Brancusi, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.