Some rooms at Kew Palace have been untouched for 200 years

A �100,000 Gulbenkian Prize winner is to be announced on 24 May.

Contenders are Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Kew Palace in London, Pallant House in Chichester and Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.

Chairman of the judges, Francine Stock, said all four were "outstanding", and that choosing a shortlist was "tough".

She said: "We've travelled coast to coast from northernmost Scotland to the Sussex seaside, visiting 10 very different museums.

ORIGINAL SHORTLIST OF 10 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill District Museum, Braintree Horniman Museum, London Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow Kew Palace, London Metropolitan University's Women's Library, London Pallant House, Chichester Scotland And Medicine, Edinburgh V&A Islamic gallery, London Weston Park Museum, Sheffield

"Each has its own way of attracting the local community and new audiences to collections and exhibitions, and it is exciting to see the growth in visitor numbers."

Kelvingrove, a Victorian gallery and museum that has had a �35m restoration, has what has been called "one of the greatest civic collections in Europe".

Its 85,000 objects are grouped according to themes and stories, rather than style or chronology, and range from fine arts to archaeology and the natural world.

Kew Palace, a four-storey red brick house in Kew Gardens in south west London, is Britain's smallest royal palace and was home to George III and his family in the early 1800s.

The palace recently underwent a major restoration and reopened to the public last year. Some rooms have been recreated in Georgian splendour, but others have remained untouched for 200 years.

Butcher's shop

Pallant House Gallery's collection of modern British art includes works by Peter Blake, Lucian Freud, Barbara Hepworth and Walter Sickert.

The Queen Anne townhouse recently became the first gallery in the UK to install a geothermal heating and cooling system which has cut carbon emissions by up to 50%.

Treasures in Weston Park Museum, which opened in 1875, range from Egyptian mummies to a traditional butcher's shop.