The Vienna Art History Museum (German: Kunsthistorisches Museum) is one of the world's first museums of fine and decorative arts. Its headquarters are in a palace on the Ringstraße, crowned with an octagonal dome. The term Kunsthistorisches Museum applies to both the institution and its main building.
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The art gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum originates from the art collection of the Habsburgs. Today it is one of the largest and most important of its kind in the world.
In the 17th century, the foundations and priorities of the collection were laid: Venetian paintings of the 16th century (Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto), Flemish paintings of the 17th century (Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony van Dyck), early Dutch painting (Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden) and German Renaissance painting (Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach).
Other gallery highlights include the world's unique collection of Pieter Bruegel the Elder paintings as well as masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael, Caravaggio, Velazquez and Italian Baroque painters
Items in the Greek and Roman antiquities collection span over three millennia and range from Cyprus 3rd millennium BC pottery to the Bronze Age. to the discovery of the early Middle Ages. Some 2,500 objects are on permanent display. Three points make this collection one of the best of its kind: unique and spectacular antique reliefs, including the famous Gemma Augustea, treasures from the Great Migration and the early Middle Ages, such as the Gold Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós, and a collection of vases including the Brygos Cup, among others masterpiece.
Other highlights of the collection include a larger than life votive statue from Cyprus, an Amazon sarcophagus, a bronze plaque with the famous Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, a Theseus mosaic from Salzburg and last but not least Magdalensburg Youth, to name a few.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum's Egyptian Near East collection is one of the most important collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world. More than 17,000 objects date back nearly four millennia, from predynastic and early Egyptian (c. 3500 BC) to early Christianity.
The collection is organized into four areas: Cult of the Dead, Cultural History, Sculpture and Relief, and Development of Writing. Highlights include the ornate Ka-ni-nisut cult chapel from the Old Kingdom, numerous sarcophagi and coffins, animal mummies, examples of the Book of the Dead, funerary steles, images of gods, everyday items such as clothing and cosmetics, and sculptural masterpieces such as the Backup Head of Giza , the face stele in southern Arabia and the lion statue at Ishtar Gate in Babylon