Vienna Museum of Art History

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The Vienna Museum of Art History (in German: KHM) in Vienna, Austria is an art museum considered one of the first museums of ancient art in the world.

Background
Planed in 1867, its construction began in 1871 on the Ringstrasse. The Museum of Art History opened its doors during the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph to house the collections built over the centuries by the House of Habsburg. Unlike many other national museums (the Louvre Museum, the Hermitage Museum, etc.) which are ancient palaces, the function of the building that hosts it has been fixed since construction.

The building
The Museum of Art History is located on the circular boulevard, the Ring, in a building imitating the Italian Renaissance style begun in 1871 and completed in 1891. The Kunsthistorisches Museum, with its twin building, the natural history museum opposite, is one of the most important historic buildings of the Ringstrasse era. The interior structure of the building combines several architectural traditions: the vestibule, the vast staircase and the dome form a whole, as a staging celebrating the emperor's work manager and his predecessors. The overall impression is dominated by polychrome marbles, ceiling paintings and rich dome decorations. The impressive staircase of the museum houses works by Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt, Franz Matsch, Hans Makart and Mihály Munkácsy, and the sculpture by Antonio Canova Thésée and the Centaure. Each year, more than 75 per cent of them are foreigners.

Collections

The collections of the Museum of Art History, especially from the ancient Austrian imperial collections of the Habsburg dynasty, gather works ranging from Egyptian and Greek antiquity to the , in the field of decorative arts, and painting.

On the ground floor and on the ground floor, Egyptian and near-eastern collections, as well as Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, can be found. In the intersoil there are sculptures and decorative arts.

The whole first floor is dedicated to painting: the left wing is reserved for Flemish, Dutch and German schools; the right wing, at Italian, Spanish and French schools.

On the second floor, the halls of the annex gallery () gather hundreds of Flemish, German and Italian works of art.

Also dependent on the museum are the collections of ancient musical instruments, the Musée d'Ephèse and the collection of weapons and armor, all located in the Neue Burg.

Antiquities of Egypt and the Near East
Egyptian and near-eastern collections have a total of 17,000 works, of which only 4,000 are exhibited. Set up by the Habsburgs at the beginning of the 19th century, the Egyptian collection houses 12,000 works, including sarcophagus, sculptures and everyday objects. Egyptian Halls