The Leopold Museum houses one of the most important collections of early 20th-century Austrian art. Avid art collectors Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold collected more than 5,000 exhibits over five decades. Housed in Vienna's popular MuseumsQuartier, the Leopold's dense collection features artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl. The collection was consolidated in 1994, and in 2001 the museum opened its doors to the public.
When young medical student Rudolf Leopold purchased his first work of art in his mid-twenties, nobody could have predicted that it would become an obsession.
Forty years later Rudolf Leopold consolidated more than 5,000 artworks and objects into a private foundation valued at 575 million Euros. The collection, in its permanent home in a museum purpose-built by the Austrian state, is the largest and most-visited museum in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier.
The main focus of the collection is Austrian art of the first half of the 20th century, and includes the world's largest collection of works by the influential Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele. The focus is his radical and expressive works, created between 1910 and 1915.
There's also an impressive set of works by world-renowned artist Gustav Klimt - co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897.
The permanent exhibition Vienna 1900 allows visitors to experience the diversity of an era marked by the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, (a 'total work of art' that permeates all aspects of life). The works on display here include Expressionist paintings, pieces from the Vienna Secession, and masterpieces of the Wiener Werkstätte - the Viennese arts and crafts movement.
Amsterdam