View source for Kunsthistorisches Museum

{{Short description|Art museum in Vienna, Austria}}
{{Infobox museum
| name            = Kunsthistorisches Museum
| logo            = Kunsthistorisches_Museum_logo.svg
| image           = Maria-Theresien-Platz Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien 2010.jpg
| caption         = Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna with Maria-Theresien-Platz
| mapframe        = yes
| mapframe-caption = Interactive fullscreen map
| mapframe-zoom   = 14
| mapframe-marker = museum
| mapframe-wikidata = yes
| coordinates     = {{WikidataCoord|display=it}}
| established     = 1871–1891
| location        = Maria Theresien Platz [[Vienna]], Austria
| type            = [[Art museum]]
| visitors        = 1,688,509 (2023)<ref>{{cite web |title=The 100 most popular art museums in the world—blockbusters, bots and bounce-backs |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/03/26/the-100-most-popular-art-museums-in-the-world-2023 |website=theartnewspaper.com |publisher=The Art Newspaper |access-date=4 September 2024}}</ref>
| director        = Jonathan Fine (since 2025)
| architects      = [[Karl Hasenauer]] <br> [[Gottfried Semper]]
| website         = {{URL|www.khm.at}}
}}
[[Image:Kunsthistorisches Museum Interior.JPG|thumb|Rotunda]]
[[File:Raphael - Madonna in the Meadow - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Madonna del Prato (Raphael)|Madonna of the Meadow]]'' by [[Raphael]], 1506]]
[[Image:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Tower of Babel (Vienna) - Google Art Project - edited.jpg|thumb|''[[The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)|Tower of Babel]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], {{Circa|1563}}]]
[[Image:Arcimboldo, Giuseppe Summer.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[The Four Seasons (Arcimboldo)|Summer]]'', by [[Giuseppe Arcimboldo]], 1563]]
[[Image:Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez - Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress]]'' by [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]]]]
[[File:Sculptures at staircase Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.jpg|thumb|Sculptures at staircase]]

The '''Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien''' ({{abbr|lit.|literally}} "Vienna Museum of [[art history|Art History]]", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") 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 [[list of largest art museums|largest art museum]] in the country.

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]].<ref>{{cite book |author=The Office of the High Chamberlain |date=31 December 1906 |title=Guide to the Treasury of the Imperial House of Austria |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Vienna_Austria_Kunsthistorisches_Museum_Geistliche?id=E64DAAAAYAAJ |location=Vienna |publisher=A. Holzhausen |page=12 |url-access=registration}}</ref> 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 [[Habsburg]]s' formidable art collection and to make it accessible to the general public. The buildings are rectangular, with symmetrical [[Renaissance Revival architecture|Renaissance Revival]] [[façade]]s of [[sandstone]] lined with large arched windows on the main levels and topped with octagonal domes {{convert|60|m|ft}} high. The interiors of the museums are lavishly decorated with marble, [[stucco]] ornamentation, gold-leaf, and murals. The [[Paintings in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum|grand stairway]] features paintings by [[Gustav Klimt]], [[Ernst Klimt]], [[Franz Matsch]], [[Hans Makart]] and [[Mihály Munkácsy]].<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://www.academia.edu/36238395| title=Gustav Klimt and Egyptian Art. Paintings in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum| first=Ernst| last=Czerny| year=2012| publisher=Academy of Performing Arts in Prague| journal=Egypt and Austria VII| isbn=978-8073312473}}</ref>

== Collection ==
=== Picture gallery ===
{{Category see also|Paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum}}
The museum's primary collections are those of the [[Habsburg]]s, particularly from the [[portrait]] and [[armour]] collections of [[Ferdinand II of Austria|Ferdinand of Tirol]], the collections of Emperor [[Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolph II]] (the largest part of which is, however, scattered), and the collection of [[painting]]s of [[Archduke Leopold Wilhelm]], of which his Italian paintings were first documented in the ''[[Theatrum Pictorium]]''.

Notable works in the picture gallery include: 
* [[Jan van Eyck]]:  ''[[Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati]]'' ({{Circa|1431}})
* [[Antonello da Messina]]: ''[[San Cassiano Altarpiece]]'' (1475–1476)
* [[Raphael]]: 
** ''[[Madonna del Prato (Raphael)|Madonna of the Meadow]]'' (1506)
** ''[[St Margaret and the Dragon (Raphael)|St Margaret and the Dragon]]'' (1518)
* [[Albrecht Dürer]]:
** ''[[Avarice (Dürer, Vienna)|Avarice]]'' (1507)
** ''[[Adoration of the Trinity]]'' (1511)
* [[Titian]]: 
** ''[[The Bravo (Titian)|The Bravo]]'' (1516–17)
** ''[[Portrait of Isabella d'Este (Titian)|Portrait of Isabella d'Este]]'' (1534–1536)
* [[Lorenzo Lotto]]: ''[[Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine and Saint James]]'' ({{Circa|1527}})
* [[Tintoretto]]:  ''[[Susanna and the Elders]]'' (1555–56)
* [[Pieter Brueghel the Elder]]:
** ''[[The Fight Between Carnival and Lent]] ''(1559)
** ''[[Children's Games (Bruegel)|Children's Games]]'' (1560)
** ''[[The Tower of Babel (Brueghel)|The Tower of Babel]]'' (1563)
** ''[[The Procession to Calvary (Bruegel)|The Procession to Calvary]]'' (1564)
** ''[[The Gloomy Day]] (February - March)'' (1565)
** ''[[The Return of the Herd]] (October - November)'' (1565)
** ''[[The Hunters in the Snow]] (December - January)'' (1565)
** ''[[The Peasant and the Nest Robber]]'' (Bauer und Vogeldieb), 1568
** ''[[The Peasant Wedding]]'' (1568/69)
** ''[[The Peasant Dance]]'' (1568/69)
* [[Giuseppe Arcimboldo]]: 
** ''[[The Four Seasons (Arcimboldo)|The Four Seasons]]''
*** ''Summer'' (1563)
*** ''Winter'' (1563)
* [[Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio|Caravaggio]]:
** ''[[The Crowning with Thorns (Caravaggio, Vienna)|The Crowning with Thorns]]'' ({{Circa|1602}}–1604)
** ''[[Madonna of the Rosary (Caravaggio)|Madonna of the Rosary]]'' (1606–07)
** ''[[David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio), Vienna|David with the Head of Goliath]]''
* [[Peter Paul Rubens]]:
** ''[[Miracles of St. Francis Xavier (Rubens)|Miracles of St. Francis Xavier]]''
** ''[[Angelica and the Hermit]]'' (1626–1628)
** ''[[Ildefonso Altarpiece]]'' (1630–1632)
** ''[[Self-Portrait (Rubens, 1638–1639)|Self-Portrait]]'' (1638–39)
** ''[[:File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Fur ("Het Pelsken") - WGA20386.jpg|The Fur]]'' (1638)
* [[Rembrandt]]: ''[[Self Portrait (Rembrandt, Vienna)|Self Portrait]]'' (1652)
* [[Ciro Ferri]]: ''[[Ananias Curing Saul's Blindness]]'' (1660)
* [[Johannes Vermeer]]: ''[[The Art of Painting]]'' (1665–66)
* [[Diego Velázquez]]: Several portraits of the Spanish royal family, a branch of the Habsburg, sent to Vienna.
* [[Adrien Manglard]]: ''Seestück''; ''Seehafen''
* [[Thomas Gainsborough]]: ''Landscape in Suffolk'' (1748; currently not on display)

The collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum:
* Egyptian and [[Near East]]ern Collection
* Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
* Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts
* Coin Collection
* Library

=== Hofburg ===
* [[Ephesos Museum|Ephesus Museum]]
* Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
* [[Imperial Armoury]]
* Archive
* Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasury (in the Schweizerhof)

=== Others ===
* [[Imperial Carriage Museum|Museum of Carriages and Department of Court Uniforms]] (in [[Schönbrunn Palace]])
* Collections of [[Ambras Castle]] (in [[Innsbruck]])
* the [[Austrian Theatre Museum]] in [[Palais Lobkowitz]]

Also affiliated are the: 
* Museum of [[Ethnology]] in the Neue Burg (affiliated in 2001);
* ''[[Lipizzan]]er-Museum'' in the ''[[Stallburg]]''

== Nazi-looted art ==
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 (Art Collector)|Richard Neumann]], a Jewish art collector in Vienna plundered by the Nazis.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hickley|first=Catherine|title=Austria Urges Return of Altar Panels to Jewish Heir|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=OAGE7R111121|access-date=2021-04-07|website=www.lootedart.com|publisher=Bloomberg|quote=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."}}</ref>

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 Wächter, the wife of Krakow's Nazi governor [[Otto Wächter|Otto von Wächter]], during the [[German occupation of Poland]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-10-26|title=Row erupts over £50m Bruegel painting in Nazi looted art claim|url=https://artlawandmore.com/2015/10/26/row-erupts-over-50m-bruegel-painting-in-nazi-looted-art-claim/|access-date=2021-04-07|website=Art Law & More|language=en|archive-date=2021-04-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418151213/https://artlawandmore.com/2015/10/26/row-erupts-over-50m-bruegel-painting-in-nazi-looted-art-claim/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Kunsthistorisches Museum, insisted that it had owned the painting since the 17th century, and that the artwork seized by von Wächter in 1939 "was a different painting".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-10-23|title=$77 Million Bruegel Painting in Nazi Loot Claim|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nazi-loot-claim-bruegel-painting-346763|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024170615/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nazi-loot-claim-bruegel-painting-346763|archive-date=2015-10-24|access-date=2021-04-07|website=Artnet News|language=en-US|quote=The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, meanwhile, claims that it has owned the painting since the 17th century, and that the artwork seized by von Wächter in 1939 was a different painting.}}</ref>

== Recent events ==
<!--{{update}}-->
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 (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]]. It had been the greatest [[art theft]] in Austrian history.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4636668.stm |title=Police find stolen £36m figurine |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=22 January 2006 |access-date=31 October 2020}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/picture-gallery/the-best-of-bruegel-only-in-vienna/ |title=The Best of Bruegel – Only in Vienna| publisher=Kunsthistorisches Museum| language=en| access-date=31 October 2019}}</ref>

==Gallery==
{{gallery
|height=150 <!--landscape-->
|mode=packed <!--use same height-->
|File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Hunters in the Snow (Winter) - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Hunters in the Snow]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]
|File:Saliera 1540-44 Cellini Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien Austria - panoramio.jpg|[[Cellini Salt Cellar]]
|File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Peasant Wedding - Google Art Project 2.jpg|[[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]'s ''[[The Peasant Wedding]]''
|File:Cupola of Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.jpg|[[Cupola]] of museum
|File:Albrecht Dürer - Cupid the Honey Thief - WGA07372.jpg|''[[Cupid]] the Honey Thief'', drawing by [[Albrecht Dürer]] 
|File:KunsthistorischesMuseumStatue.jpg|Statue outside the Kunsthistorisches Museum
|File:Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio - The Crowning with Thorns - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Crowning with Thorns (Caravaggio, Vienna)|The Crowning with Thorns]]'' by Caravaggio
|File:Caravaggio - David with the Head of Goliath - Vienna.jpg|''[[David with the Head of Goliath (Caravaggio, Vienna)|David with the Head of Goliath]]'' by Caravaggio
|File:Adrien Manglard - Seestück - GG 453 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg|''Seestück'' by Adrien Manglard
|File:Adrien Manglard - Seehafen - GG 1779 - Kunsthistorisches Museum.jpg|''Seehafen'' by Adrien Manglard
}}
{{gallery
|height=180 <!--portrait-->
|mode=packed <!--use same height-->
|File:EmperorSuleiman.jpg|[[Suleiman the Magnificent]] by Titian
|File:Sculpture of Madonna with child and St John (Kunsthistoriches Museum).jpg|Madonna with child and St John by Benedetto Cacciatori
|File:Jan Vermeer - The Art of Painting - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Johannes Vermeer]]'s ''[[The Art of Painting]]''
|File:Tizian 056.jpg|''[[Portrait of Isabella d'Este (Titian)|Portrait of Isabella d'Este]]'' by [[Titian]]
|File:Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Saal.jpg|One of the galleries
|File:Thutmosis III wien front.jpg|Statue of [[Thutmosis III]]
|File:Russia Bratina of Ladislaus IV Vasa 01.jpg|A [[loving cup]] of King [[Władysław IV Vasa|Ladislaus IV of Poland]]
|File:Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - Large Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Self-portrait (Rembrandt, Vienna)|Self-portrait]]'' by Rembrandt
|File:Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio - Madonna of the Rosary - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Madonna of the Rosary (Caravaggio)|Madonna of the Rosary]]'' by Caravaggio
}}

== See also ==
* [[Imperial Treasury, Vienna]]
* [[List of largest art museums]]
* ''[[Old Masters (novel)|Old Masters]]'' by Thomas Bernhard prominently features this museum

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
* {{Official website|www.khm.at/en/}} {{in lang|en}}
* [http://photoartkalmar.com/Photoart%20Kalmar%20high%20res/Gigapixel/KHM.Wien.html Photoartkalmar.com: Spherical panorama of entrance]
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/zachievenor/albums/72157648498360539 Flickr.com: Hofburg's Armory photo gallery]
*[https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/kunsthistorisches-museum-vienna-museum-of-fine-arts?hl=en Virtual tour of the Kunsthistorisches Museum] provided by [[Google Arts & Culture]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Kunsthistorisches Museum| ]]
[[Category:Museums of ancient Rome in Austria| ]]
[[Category:Museums of the ancient Near East in Austria| ]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt| ]]
[[Category:Museums in Vienna| ]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Vienna| ]]
[[Category:19th-century architecture in Austria]]