Art museum in Vienna, Austria
The
Kunsthistorisches Museum
(
lit.
"Museum of
Art History
", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an
art museum
in
Vienna
, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the
Vienna Ring Road
, it is crowned with an octagonal
dome
. The term
Kunsthistorisches Museum
applies to both the institution and the main building. It is the
largest art museum
in the country and one of the most important museums worldwide.
Emperor
Franz Joseph I
of
Austria-Hungary
opened the facility around 1891 at the same time as the
Natural History Museum, Vienna
which has a similar design and is directly across
Maria-Theresien-Platz
.
[2]
The two buildings were constructed between 1871 and 1891 according to plans by
Gottfried Semper
and
Baron Karl von Hasenauer
. The emperor commissioned the two Ringstraße museums to create a suitable home for the
Habsburgs
' formidable art collection and to make it accessible to the general public. The buildings are rectangular, with symmetrical
Renaissance Revival
facades
of
sandstone
lined with large arched windows on the main levels and topped with an octagonal dome 60 metres (200 ft) high. The interiors of the museums are lavishly decorated with marble,
stucco
ornamentation, gold-leaf, and murals. The
grand stairway
features paintings by
Gustav Klimt
,
Ernst Klimt
,
Franz Matsch
,
Hans Makart
and
Mihaly Munkacsy
.
[3]
Collection
[
edit
]
Picture gallery
[
edit
]
The museum's primary collections are those of the
Habsburgs
, particularly from the
portrait
and
armour
collections of
Ferdinand of Tirol
, the collections of Emperor
Rudolph II
(the largest part of which is, however, scattered), and the collection of paintings of
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm
, of which his Italian paintings were first documented in the
Theatrum Pictorium
.
Notable works in the picture gallery include:
The collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum:
- Egyptian and
Near Eastern
Collection
- Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
- Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Coin Collection
- Library
Hofburg
[
edit
]
- Ephesus Museum
- Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
- Collection of Arms and Armour
- Archive
- Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasury (in the Schweizerhof)
Others
[
edit
]
Also affiliated are the:
Nazi-looted art
[
edit
]
In 2010, an Austrian government panel recommended that the Kunsthistorisches Museum should restitute two altar panels by the 16th-century Dutch artist,
Maerten van Heemskerck
to the heirs of
Richard Neumann
, a Jewish art collector in Vienna plundered by the Nazis.
[4]
In 2015, a dispute over a painting by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
,
The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
(1559), erupted between Poland and Austria. Poland presented evidence that the painting had been seized by Charlotte von Wachter, the wife of Krakow's Nazi governor
Otto von Wachter
, during the
German occupation of Poland
.
[5]
The Kunsthistorisches Museum, insisted that it had owned the painting since the 17th century, and that the artwork seized by von Wachter in 1939 "was a different painting".
[6]
Recent events
[
edit
]
One of the museum's most important objects, the
Cellini Salt Cellar
sculpture by
Benvenuto Cellini
, was stolen on 11 May 2003 and recovered on 21 January 2006, in a box buried in a forest near the town of
Zwettl
. It was featured in an episode of
Museum Secrets
on the
History Channel
. It had been the greatest
art theft
in Austrian history.
[7]
The museum is the subject of Johannes Holzhausen's documentary film
The Great Museum
(2014), filmed over two years in the run up to the re-opening of the newly renovated and expanded Kunstkammer rooms in 2013.
From October 2018 through January 2019 the museum hosted the world's largest-ever exhibition of works by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
called
Bruegel ? Once in a Lifetime
.
[8]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
-
-
-
-
Cupid
the Honey Thief
, drawing by
Albrecht Durer
-
Statue outside the Kunsthistorisches Museum
-
-
-
Seestuck
by Adrien Manglard
-
Seehafen
by Adrien Manglard
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
"Bundesmuseen: Die meisten Besucher in KHM, Belvedere und Albertina"
[Federal museums: Most visitors go to the KHM, Belvedere and Albertina].
Der Standard
(in German). Vienna.
Austria Press Agency
. 30 January 2020
. Retrieved
31 October
2020
.
- ^
The Office of the High Chamberlain (31 December 1906).
Guide to the Treasury of the Imperial House of Austria
. Vienna: A. Holzhausen. p. 12.
- ^
Czerny, Ernst (2012).
"Gustav Klimt and Egyptian Art. Paintings in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum"
.
Egypt and Austria VII
. Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN
978-8073312473
.
- ^
Hickley, Catherine.
"Austria Urges Return of Altar Panels to Jewish Heir"
.
www.lootedart.com
. Bloomberg
. Retrieved
2021-04-07
.
A passionate collector, Neumann amassed more than 200 art works in his Vienna villa. He escaped Austria after the Nazi annexation via Switzerland to Paris. When the Nazis occupied France, he fled by foot through the Pyrenees to Spain. From there he reached Cuba, where he settled, and participated in the 1954 founding of an art museum in Havana. He later moved to New York to be with his daughter, and died there in 1961, age 82. Neumann's artworks were seized by the Nazis, then released shortly afterward to allow a sale to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Neumann's daughter sold the altar panels in 1938. The money went into a frozen account to pay Neumann's "emigration tax."
- ^
"Row erupts over £50m Bruegel painting in Nazi looted art claim"
.
Art Law & More
. 2015-10-26
. Retrieved
2021-04-07
.
- ^
"$77 Million Bruegel Painting in Nazi Loot Claim"
.
Artnet News
. 2015-10-23.
Archived
from the original on 2015-10-24
. Retrieved
2021-04-07
.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, meanwhile, claims that it has owned the painting since the 17th century, and that the artwork seized by von Wachter in 1939 was a different painting.
- ^
"Police find stolen £36m figurine"
.
BBC News
. 22 January 2006
. Retrieved
31 October
2020
.
- ^
"The Best of Bruegel ? Only in Vienna"
. Kunsthistorisches Museum
. Retrieved
31 October
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Kunsthistorisches Museum
at Wikimedia Commons
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