The Hunan Museum (湖南博物院) stands at 50 Dongfeng Road in central Changsha, beside the Revolutionary Martyr's Park. Founded in 1951 and opened in 1956, it holds more than 180,000 objects, from Mawangdui silks and Shang and Zhou bronzes to the wares of the province's famous kilns and Ming and Qing calligraphy. Its present building, designed with the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and the architect Arata Isozaki, opened in 2017 after a five-year reconstruction. Basic admission has been free since 2008.
The Hunan Museum holds the province's excavated past, from Mawangdui silks to the underglaze-painted wares of the Changsha kilns. Its building, its route through the galleries and its ceramics are the three ways the collection is laid out for visitors.