We’ve all that experience when taking a city break – so much to see and so little time.  There’s an amazing museum or art gallery on your agenda but somehow you’ve only got an hour to see it – how to handle it.  Writing city guides as I do, I’ve found myself in this situation regularly.  I once did Stockholm’s royal palace in about 35 minutes – I’m ashamed to say!

Today’s Times newspaper has advice on what to see in a rapid rush around a number of British museums.  Neil MacGregor, the excellent director of the British Museum, for instance, recommends starting in room 2 where you can find the oldest man-made objects in the collection, chopping tools from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, in Room 2, some of the first things that humans ever consciously made.  He then recommends you head for Oceania and the Wellcome Trust Gallery (Room 24).  After that it’s over to Asia and the stunning figure of the Buddhist goddess Tara from 8th-century Sri Lanka. Tara represents the spirit of generous compassion, and the sculpture is an amazing example of figural bronze casting that takes us into a world where faith and bodily beauty merge.

After the mummy galleries,  MacGregor suggests you finish in Europe with a stroll through the Greek and Roman galleries, pausing to take in the Roman silver Warren Cup from the 1st century and the famous Portland Vase.

My only suggestion would be to check out the covered courtyard which is quite a spectacular piece of architecture.

At the Tate Modern which we cover in our tour of the ancient City of London, The Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral tour, The Times recommends you do Matisse’s L’Escargot, the surrealist collection the installation by Joseph Beuys before heading upstairs to the café for a cup of tea and view of St Paul’s.  I’d add to that, if you have time, spending a few moments looking at the new installation in the vast turbine hall.

At Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery actress Alison Steadman recommends When Did you Last See your Father, perhaps the gallery’s most famous work and a vast canvass called Samson.

With smaller museums which still have great collections such as The National Gallery of Scotland which we cover in our Edinburgh audio guide

Generally, my advice would be to pick a couple of rooms – especially ones with works from a particular time of a genre to give your visit some coherence and shape.  Sprinting through a museum or art gallery allows you to see that you’ve done it – but focussing is best.

Famous for his nudes, Gustav Klimt, was one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation.  But he was also one of the most controversial, as we explain our mp3 tour of Vienna, and that controversy has been revived.

Klimt’s Beethoven frieze, at the Secession Building in Vienna, was painted at the start of the last century, in honour of the great composer and it caused huge offence with its images of naked bodies.

That outrage has been revived as real live naked bodies are encouraged to parade around the Secession building as part of new a celebration of the Beethoven frieze.

But, as our new guide to Vienna and its Imperial city explains the Secession was all about shock value.  At the end of nineteenth century, a group of artists and architects led by Klimt ’seceded’ from or left the main artistic grouping in Vienna.

I’m a particular fan of these young artists because of their courage and creativity.  They rejected the heavy ornamental style of the city’s great buildings such the Opera house.  Instead, they looked for something unashamedly modern with clean lines and minimal decoration.  In Britain and France the movement was called Art Nouveau and in Germany Jugendstil or ‘youth style.’

Gustav Klimt was commissioned to create a work of art for the university to celebrate Medicine – his mass of sickly, tangled bodies was not what the authorities had been expecting and he was attacked and vilified because of it.

The Secessionist movement might not have lasted long but it had a profound impact on art, architecture, furniture and industrial design and I love walking around Vienna to see it.  One of the most fascinating things about Vienna is the contrast between the heavy magnificent Imperial buildings and the light, elegant style of Jugendstil.

The Secession building with its understated decoration and strong, clean lines is typical of the Vienna Jugendstil look.  Where adornments were allowed they were simple, understated and set against plain walls.

In contrast to these stark, straight lines is the exuberant decoration on top.  It looks like a cabbage and that was how it was described by the Viennese when it first appeared.  In fact, it’s a huge globe of delicately intertwined laurel leaves.

The legend below it reads: “To every age its art, to art its freedom,” and next to the building is a statue of Mark Anthony.  It’s open from 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.