Museums are usually places for looking at things in, not places to look at themselves. Some, though -- like Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York -- are works of art in their own right, and the Teien Art Museum in Shirokanedai, Tokyo, falls squarely into that category.

Completed in 1933 to serve as the palace of Prince Asaka and his wife Nobuko, a daughter of Emperor Meiji, the Teien is the masterpiece of Art Deco designer Henri Rapin.

After the war, the palace passed into the hands of the state, and in 1983 it finally reopened as an art gallery that, most months of the year, hosts exhibitions from around the world. Unfortunately, though, when the exhibits come in, the curtains are drawn and protective covers sheath the walls. Visitors tour the rooms largely oblivious to the chandeliers by glassmaster Rene Lalique or to the artistry of the few original furnishings and fittings left visible, from sumptuous paneling right down to humble ventilation-shaft covers.