Albertina

The Albertina Museum is the world's leading museum for the art of drawing and printing. It is also famous for the large temporary exhibitions and the permanent presentation of modern and contemporary art. The year 1776 saw Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen begin assembling a graphic arts collection that, in 1919, would be taken over by the Austrian state together with the palace that housed it as a museum for art ranging from Renaissance masterpieces to contemporary works. Today's ALBERTINA museum is deliberately positioned as something of a Janus-faced institution: the renovated and authentically re-furnished staterooms stand for the princely lifestyle once maintained at this former Habsburg residence, while the ALBERTINA museums large-scale temporary exhibitions plus its permanent presentation of modernist and contemporary paintings attest to its character as a thoroughly modern museum. PERMANENT COLLECTION With the museum's assumption of the Batliner Collection - one of the largest and most important private collections in Europe - 2007 saw the ALBERTINA put works on permanent exhibit for the first time in its history. These holdings offer visitors an instructive tour through the world of modern painting, from French impressionism to Picasso, that is unique in Austria. With its contemporary works, the Batliner Collection complements the large contemporary art section of the ALBERTINA museums Graphic Arts Collection, which is comprised of 26,000 drawings and prints.