Additions

Among the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s foremost responsibilities are maintaining and safeguarding its existing permanent collections, augmenting them by adding carefully- chosen acquisitions, researching them and presenting them to the public so that they may be preserved for future generations. An institution celebrated for collecting and preserving seminal examples of European art and culture, the Kunsthistorisches Museum derives its unique profile from the outstanding quality of its holdings and a unique history of patronage that spans many centuries.

The exhibition „Additions“ marks the first attempt in many years to bring together in a comprehensive show artworks acquired for the Collections over a certain period of time, in this case between 1990 and 2008. During the last two decades the final decision on every purchase was guided by two goals: to fill existing gaps in the permanent collection, and to enlarge the museum’s holdings in areas of particular depth and quality. This exhibition features pertinent examples for both these goals from almost every Collection.

The Collection of Ancient Egyptian and Oriental Art acquired important objects from the second half of the eighteenth dynasty, the pre-Amarna period and the Amarna period. Among them is a unique sculpture depicting a sphinx of Amenophis III. The Collection’s extensive holdings of sarcophagi – mainly dating from the Old Kingdom, but also from the New Kingdom and the Late Period – was augmented by a magnificent painted box-shaped coffin from the Middle Kingdom. All these acquisitions perfectly complemented the Collection’s extensive holdings and found a prominent place in the newly-refurbished Egyptian Galleries.

From among the numerous acquisitions by the Collection of Classical Antiquities the armrest of an archaic throne and the sumptuous volute krater from Puglia should be singled out. Both are now displayed in the newly-refurbished Greek and Roman Galleries which re- opened to the public in 2005.

Acquisitions by the Kunstkammer (Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts) range from a Byzantine sardonyx bowl, to the ivory figure of a kneeling donor from the fourteenth century, to a fifteenth-century figure of “Christ the Judge”, to a “Mocking of Job” by the Master I.P. dated 1525, to the purchase and partial gift of Rudolf von Strasser’s important collection of glass.

One of Wilfried Seipel’s earliest purchases was the necklace of a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece – an acquisition that added to the exhibited holdings of the Treasury for the first time in decades. Incidentally, Wilfried Seipel’s final acquisition was another magnificent addition to the Treasury: a jewel from the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Among the new additions to the Picture Gallery were Lucas van Valkenborch’s charming depiction of the emperor Rudolf II strolling in the woods around Neugebäude palace, “Tarquinius and Lucretia” by Hand von Aachen, a delicate “Still-life with Bouquet of Flowers” by Georg Flegel, Nikolaus Küpfner’s “Croesus Showing his Wealth to Solon”, a painting depicting Christ nailed to the cross by Frans Floris that had formerly been in the imperial collection, Kaspar van Hoecke’s “Esther before Ahasuerus”, and a self-portrait by Gottfried Auerbach.

The Coin Collection expanded by more than 70.000 objects during this period, the largest increase of the collection’s holdings in its history since the former imperial collections became the property of the Republic of Austria. Over 50.000 Roman coins and countless others minted by the Celts in Austria complement and enhance our knowledge of Austria Romana. With the support of the Friends of the KHM we were able to acquire the Fried Collection, a seminal collection of 2.200 mediaeval coins and one of the most important additions in the history of the Coin Collection since 1929.

Thanks to the generous support of Evelyn and Herbert Axelrod who presented a violin and a viola by Jacob Stainer, and a violoncello built by Giovanni Battista Grancino in 1699 to the Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, it was able to augment its extensive holdings of string instruments. The collection was also overjoyed to acquire a violin once owned by Leopold Mozart, as well as a violin formerly in the possession of Josef Schrammel.

The Collection of Historical Arms and Armour acquired reinforcement pieces for the tournament belonging to the rose-leaves garniture of Emperor Maximilian II, an acquisition also made possible by a generous donation from the Friends of the KHM.

The Collection of Historical Carriages and the Department of Court Uniforms also recorded important additions. Among them are paintings and prints, a sedan-chair dating from the second half of the eighteenth century that was formerly in the possession of Prince Kinsky, and numerous court-robes, uniforms and ball-gowns.

The Library augmented its holdings of prints and bibliophile treasures with the acquisition of an important sketch by Hans Makart, one that is of great importance in the context of the magnificent interior decoration of the sumptuous museum built by Semper and Hasenauer.

In 2008 the Archive was happy to receive a large collection of documents from the estate of the late Gustav Glück, a former director of the Picture Gallery. The letters he exchanged between 1890 and 1952 with art-historians, scholars and other well-known contemporaries form an important source for the history of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.