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PICNIC IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN
Pick up breakfast, lunch, coffee, or snacks at Cafe Express in the Beck Building, and dine alfresco in this outdoor art gallery where admission is always FREE. Open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily at the corner of Montrose Boulevard and Bissonnet Street.
 View the full TOP 10 list
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About Rienzi
1406 Kirby Drive
Houston, TX 77019
Rienzi, the Southwest's most important collection of European decorative arts, opened in April 1999. Houston philanthropists and MFAH patrons Harris Masterson III and his wife, Carroll Sterling Masterson, gave their home, called Rienzi, to the museum along with their exquisite collection of decorative arts. An accomplished collector, Mr. Masterson was especially drawn to British painting and decorative arts, which he began to acquire while in England during World War II.
The ballroom, the grandest room of the house, is an elegant setting for mid-18th-century English furniture, small gold objects by American jeweler David Webb, and a dazzling collection of Worcester porcelain. The centerpiece of the picture hall is an early-19th-century white marble sculpture of the Roman goddess Venus, attributed to Giovanni Pisani and Brothers. Other highlights include Saint Joseph and the Christ Child (1638–40) by Guido Reni and a sumptuous portrait of Lady Blount (1760s) by George Romney.
John F. Staub, the architect of Bayou Bend, designed Rienzi in 1952. A one-story villa, Rienzi features a symmetrical facade, balustrade, and a parapet and overlooks a dramatic pool and more than four acres of gardens designed by the noted Texas landscape architect Ralph Ellis Gunn.
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