The Art Gallery of New South Wales is located in The Domain and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia.
Admission is free to the general exhibition space, which features Australian , European and Asian art, with an admission fee to feature exhibitions in closed areas.
Visitor facilities include disabled acess, restaurants and coffee shops, and an arts bookshop.

The Australian Collection provides a comprehensive overview of Australian art in all media from early colonial times to the present.
The old courts on the ground floor displays painters and sculptors of the 19th century, including national icons such as Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Athur Streeton, while the Captain Cook wing opposite houses an impressive collection of Australian modernism.
The Aboriginal collection can be found on the third level in the Yiribana gallery.

The Asian Collection is on the ground floor in a specially developed Asian Gallery and in a more traditional gallery directly below. It also traces the spread of Buddhism from India across central Asia to China and Japan and into Southeast Asia.
For more information on Asian art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, visit Asian Art

The Western Collection begins in the old courts. Thanks largely to the generosity of James Fairfax there is a small but impressive collection of European art from the 16th century in Italy and the Netherlands through to the 19th century, where there is a very strong holding of British Victorian painting and sculpture collected from the earliest days of the foundation of the Gallery.
On level 2 there is a collection of modern British masters and a small but excellent collection of European modernists.
Contemporary art, including Australian art, also hangs on this level and is considered part of the Western collection. There is a very strong holding of international and Australian art after 1965, only a fragment of which can be displayed at any time.
The Photography collection and Twentieth century works on paper are also shown in smaller galleries on this floor.

The exhibits in the fine arts display at Sydney's great International Exhibition of 1879-80, became the nucleus of a government collection when the exhibition closed. The first purpose built gallery building was opened in 1884 and has since been demolished.
The present building was designed by the NSW Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914). Although the majority of Vernon's buildings are in the Arts and Crafts style, this building was in the classical tradition. The Gallery's design was conservative and was the penultimate example of the neo-Greek temple as a portico for a major public institution in Sydney (the final application in Sydney of the Greek Temple front was the State Library of NSW).
An addition in 1971 increased the exhibition space from 2000 to 4900 square metres. Grey toned rough concrete was used to "blend" with the sandstone of the old building. In 1988, the Captain Cook Bicentenary Wing was completed. More recently, as part of the "Open Museum" project, sculptures have been positioned along the entry road.

Established in 1874, the gallery acquired some large works from Europe such as Ford Madox Brown's Chaucer at the Court of Edward III. Later they bought work from Australian artists such as Streeton's 1891 'Fire's on', Roberts' 1894 'The Golden Fleece' and Frederick McCubbin's 1896 'On the Wallaby Track'.
The permanent collection includes works by many Australian artists, including 19th Century Australian artists such as John Glover, Eugene von Guerard, John Russell, David Davies, Charles Conder, Sydney Long and George W. Lambert.
20th Century Australian artists represented include Hugh Ramsay, Rupert Bunny, Grace Cossington Smith, William Dobell, Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale, Arthur Boyd, Lloyd Rees, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley and Imants Tillers.

Archibald Prize
The Gallery hosts the long running Archibald Prize, the most prominent Australian art prize restricted to portraiture, along with the Sulman Prize, Wynne Prize and Dobell art prizes, among others. It also exhibits Artexpress, a yearly showcase of Higher School Certificate Visual Arts Examination artworks from across New South Wales.

2007 Art theft 'A Cavalier'
On 10th June 2007 a 17th century work by Frans van Mieris, entitled 'A Cavalier' a self portrait, was stolen from the gallery. The painting, valued at AU$1.4 million and donated by John Fairfax, was "swiftly and expertly" removed from its wall amidst a crowd of 6,000. Police have not ruled out an inside job and have speculated the painting could have been carried out under the culprit's coat.
Following the incident security at the gallery was reviewed. There were no cameras in the room nor were guards stationed in it, none of the paintings in the gallery are protected by alarms and patrons are not checked upon leaving the building. Furthermore the theft was not reported to police until late Monday.