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Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities & Ephesos Museum

The Viennese Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities includes art and everyday objects from the Greek, late Classical, and Roman world, as well as neighbouring cultures. The collections originated from The Collections of the Habsburgs and contain artworks spanning 3,000 years.

The collection owes its importance to its unique inventory of antique Roman cameos, preeminent examples of painted Greek vases, and treasure finds from the Migration Period in areas of the former Habsburg Empire.

The finds from the Austrian expeditions of the late nineteenth century to Samothrace (Greece), Trysa, and Ephesus (Türkiye) are on display in the Ephesos Museum.

About the collection

The Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities conserves and researches objects from the Greek, late Classical, and Roman world.

Many aspects of life today can be traced back to Antiquity: Greek and Roman architecture, sculpture, and philosophy have shaped aesthetic perception and artistic creation in modern times. The emergence of democracy in ancient Athens, the search for a concept of man in Greek sculpture, and the spread of Christianity exemplify the incredible significance of this epoch of history.

Today, we are trying to understand the artworks and answer the questions about their creation, materiality, message, and significance. Pinpointing the objects’ context and understanding the world in which they were created is a considerable and difficult task, since the artworks often arrived in Vienna as part of earlier collections. The core tasks of the collection include exhibitions, communications, and publishing research publications.

z.B. Aristoteles, Büste, Aphrodite

Research projects on the collection

All research projects

Restoration

Artwork conservation is one of a museum’s primary responsibilities. Restoring damaged objects is just as important as preventative conservation and taking action to preserve the objects in the collection for the future. The restoration department of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities has developed special expertise with respect to stone, ceramic, or bronze objects in old collections and their highly different conditions due to being stored on the floor and the different treatment of surfaces.

The team also researches materials, manufacturing techniques, and polychromy.

Publications on the collection

Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
€ 19,90
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The Heroon von Trysa Bd. 13/1
The Heroon von Trysa Bd. 13/1
€ 29,95
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The Heroon von Trysa Bd. 13/2
The Heroon von Trysa Bd. 13/2
€ 29,95
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Die Archäologie der ephesischen Artemis
Die Archäologie der ephesischen Artemis
€ 71,00
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The Octagon of Arsinoe IV in Ephesos
The Octagon of Arsinoe IV in Ephesos
€ 41,20
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Das Heroon von Trysa
Das Heroon von Trysa
€ 52,00
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Resources

Permanent exhibition

The works in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities are on permanent public display in two exhibitions.

Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
The items in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities span a period of more than 3,000 years and range from Bronze Age ceramics from Cyprus dating from the third century BCE to early mediaeval finds. The public collection contains around 2,500 unique objects. Treasures, antique cameos, architectural elements, mosaics, vases, and masterpieces crafted from marble bring Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and the eventful history of a plethora of neighbouring cultures to life.

Exhibition

The Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities is permanently located on the ground floor of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Ephesos Museum
Ephesus in modern Türkiye was one of the most important cities of Antiquity. This was the location of the Artemis Temple – one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was where Heraclitus lived, and the city also witnessed the emergence of one of the largest communities of early Christians. In Roman times, Ephesus became the capital of the province of Asia and had around 200,000 inhabitants.

Since 1895, Austrian archaeologists have worked to uncover the ruins of Ephesus. Prior to 1906, many discoveries of superior quality made their way to Vienna where, today, they can be found on display in the Ephesos Museum, a branch of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

Exhibition

The Ephesos Museum is on permanent display at the Neue Hofburg Palace (entrance: House of Austrian History).

Further collections and departments