The National Museum's front hall has just been turned into a world-class gallery, bringing together the museum's most priceless treasures in a single room, and allowing them to shine brighter than ever thanks to carefully designed lighting, showcases and minimal gray backdrops. A monumental Buddha head from the Ayutthaya period looks over it all, while a stunningly graceful bronze Bodhisattva from the Srivijaya period takes center stage amid Khmer and Hindu sculptures. Smaller pieces are kept behind glass panes on both sides of the room, ranging from early Buddhist art to delicate Rattanakosin-era puppets. This is the kind of stuff New York Metropolitan's Museum or London's British Museum would kill for. And it's finally being presented properly.

The National Museum is one of Bangkok's most charming sites. Built in 1782 as the viceroy's palace, it's just as superb an example of Rattankosin architecture as the grand palace, which was built around the same time. Much of the palace is now under renovation, but a few of the old galleries remain, where gold relics from Ayutthaya share dusty wood and glass showcases with unidentified Buddha images that look a few decades old at most and miniature doll accessories collected by one of Rama V's consorts.  Beyond these crumbling halls, the palace is actually a compound, with exquisite salas, residential pavilions, graceful temple halls and not-so-graceful modern additions housing grandiose royal chariots or treasures of Lanna, Dvaravati and Sukhothai art.

The National Museum's front hall was actually one of the least impressive exhibits. Meant to tell Thailand's official nation-building narrative, it mixed quaint dioramas and faded maps. That's the hall that just got revamped. And before you file this one under "obscure cultural improvements," allow us to make the case for just how momentous this new exhibit is. Thailand has one of the world's most important collections of Buddhist art. And art is big business. Whether it's the Louvre expanding to Dubai, or Guggenheim putting Bilbao on the global tourism map overnight, museums are powerful drivers of tourism. This new hall is so good, it's worth getting on a plane for. And it was massively overdue.

The National Museum Bangkok, 4 Na Phrathat Rd., 02-224-1333. Open Wed-Sun and national holidays (except Songkran and Jan 1), 9am-4pm

B30 for holders of Thai ID cards. B200 for foreigners. (Yes, that means you too, tax-paying expat.)