Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Author: Lorenz Reitsamer

General information

Address:

Main building on the Ring: Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Vienna

Archive of the museum: Heldenplatz, 1010 Vienna (Entrance via Weltmuseum)

Website: https://www.khm.at/forschung/abteilungen/archiv

Contact: info.archiv@khm.at

Brief history

Most of the many collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (KHM; “Museum of Art History Vienna”) come from former Habsburg imperial collections. Very prominent collectors were, for instance, Ferdinand II., Archduke of Further Austria (1529–1595), Emperor Rudolph II, (1552–1612) and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614–1662). Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) brought all the paintings in possession of the Habsburgs together in the Stallburg. In the 18^th century, under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, the collection was taken to the Belvedere. The Coin Cabinet and the Cabinet for Antiquities were situated in the Augustinergang of the Hofburg. Under Emperor Franz Joseph (1830–1916), the building on the Ringstraße was built from 1871 to 1891, and the Picture Gallery, as well as many other parts of the collection, now part of the Kunsthistorische Museum, were transferred to this building.

The history of the KHM’s archive does not go as far back, though it predates the completion of the KHM’s prominent main building on the Ringstraße in 1891: from 1889 onward, there was a dedicated civil servant responsible for administrative work, which helped to relieve the other collections of such tasks. Since 1983, the archive has been established in the Hofburg, as there were empty rooms available. In 1999, it was officially designated as the twelfth collection of the institution. On January 1, 2000, it was included in the Federal Archives Act.

Holdings

As already mentioned, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is a prominent museum with many varied museum collections. They include the Picture Gallery, which is one of the most significant of its kind in the world, according to their own website. It started as an imperial Habsburg collection in the 16^th to 17^th centuries. The gallery holds paintings from many famous artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Paolo Veronese, and many more. The collection of the Kunstkammer (“Art Chamber”) again originates from a former Habsburg collection. Within it, one can find ivory carvings, valuable clocks, curious scientific instruments, and more.

The museum, with its coin cabinet, accommodates one of the biggest coin collections in the world – and one of the oldest. Interest in ancient coins has been a constant over the centuries, but this collection is all the more precious today because such coins were often melted for their valuable metals. The oldest inventory still available dates back to Ferdinand I. in the 16th century, which encompasses mostly ancient Roman coins.

The museum also has a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, which stems from a Habsburg collection. It has Greek and Roman everyday objects, as well as rich archaeological finds from the Early Middle Ages. Objects found at Austrian excavations at Ephesos, an ancient Greek settlement in present-day Turkey, are exhibited in the Ephesos Museum, a branch of the KHM located in the Hofburg. The Egyptian-Oriental collection includes objects from ancient Egypt and the Near East. It came to Austria through purchases, donations and archaeological excavations done in the 20^th century.

In addition, the KHM holds a collection of musical instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Museum also has a courtly hunting and armoury collection, as well as an imperial carriage museum and attire depot. Furthermore, there is a library with books dating back to the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

The archive of the museum encompasses units focused on administrative purposes, such as, for instance, personnel files or collection files. Here, one can find out where certain objects of the museum collections originally came from, or which items were bought or donated. There are also items relating to the history of the building on the Ringstraße, such as historical plans, historical depictions of the building across time or visitor statistics.

Structure and access

There are no catalogues for the collection of the archive of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. There are exhibition catalogues for the non-permanent exhibits. The Archive contains 30,000 items which are categorised into 25 archival groups. These are, for example, collection files; exhibition documentation and visitor statistics; or files on confiscation during the Nazi era, just to name a few focal points.

Regarding digital access, there is the option of browsing the KHM Digital Museum for each respective collection. However, only a small part is generally digitised, so not everything can be traced online. Files of confiscations during the Nazi era have been published online as index cards. These cards are published on the website ZDK Online.

The archive is easy to access, but it is necessary to make an appointment in advance if one wants to see items from the archival collections. The archive is not situated in the building where most of the exhibits and collections are, but instead in the Hofburg. The entrance is via the Weltmuseum.

Connected collections

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is part of the KHM Museumsverband (“Museum Association”). Other museums of this group include: Sammlungen in der neuen Burg, Kaiserliche Schatzkammer, Weltmuseum Wien, Theseustempel, Theatermuseum, Kaiserliche Wagenburg and, finally, Schloss Ambras, which is the only branch not situated in Vienna but in Innsbruck.

What makes this collection global?

There are many possibilities and there is great potential for global history making use of the objects of this particular institution. As outlined above, some collections possess objects from a non-European context, for instance, the Egyptian-Oriental Collection. As those items have a history that goes beyond Europe, it might be interesting to tell their story from a global history perspective. The Coin Collection is, of course, very intriguing for such an undertaking. The museum has coins minted outside of Europe, but even coins minted in Western Europe could be fascinating in this regard, as many coins circulated in a multitude of places. As we can see, the history of certain objects can fit into a global history narrative, telling their stories of circulation through different countries. However, of course, there would be limits as well. For many objects, it might be quite hard to trace how they came to Austria, especially if they were in the Habsburg collection for a long time.

There are also collections that have more of a Eurocentric undertone. The Picture Gallery, for example, houses mostly artworks painted by Europeans for Europeans. But if we take a different perspective on global history, even European-made paintings hold potential for global-historical research questions. One possibility would be to examine how Europeans represented other cultures and continents, as well as their relationship to Europe, visually. For example, Peter Paul Rubens’ “The Four Rivers of Paradise” has traditionally been interpreted as representing the four continents (Africa, Europe, America and Asia), as women, together with the rivers Nile, Danube, Rio de la Plata and Ganges, depicted as men. The picture’s composition physically elevates the allegories of Europe and Asia over their two counterparts. Going along with the traditional interpretation, this could be read as revealing a typically hierarchical, Eurocentric viewpoint.A newer interpretation, however, emphasises a more literal reading of the figures in the painting as allegories of the four rivers of paradise mentioned in the bible. Crossing these two perspectives, one might ask how the apparent geographical and biblical references intersect. Cases like this one show that a global history perspective can contribute to the analysis of artworks in compelling ways.

Featured primary source

The object chosen here as an exemplary primary source is a coin hoard found in Yemen at the end of the 19^th century (inventory numbers: GR 31252 – GR 31282 and RÖ 35945 – RÖ 35948). The hoard consists of 31 Aksumite gold coins and 4 Roman gold coins, which were found together in Aden. D. H. Müller acquired the coins in an expedition of the Austrian Academy for Sciences to Yemen in 1898/1899. Müller was an orientalist and a professor at the University of Vienna, where he helped to establish the institute of Oriental Studies in 1886. He sold the coins in 1904 to the Coin Cabinet in the Kunsthistorische Museum for approximately 489 Kronen and 88 Heller. It is possible to see the coins online via the website of the Münzkabinett.

The Aksumite coins can be dated from the period of King Ezana (340–360) to King Kaleb (500–520). The four Roman ones consist of three minted under Emperor Constantius II. (r. 337–361) and one minted under Emperor Valens (r. 364–378). The Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient Kingdom in East Africa, and for a short while in South Arabia, based in what is today Ethiopia and Eritrea. It existed approximately from the first century to 960 AD. The hoard sold to the KHM by Müller is not the only instance where Aksumite and Roman gold coins have been found together in Yemen. The biggest one would be the al-Madhāriba hoard, which was analysed by the British numismatist and archaeologist Munro-Hay in 1989. With multiple instances of such coin hoards found in Yemen, the question of how they ended up there arises.

A noteworthy fact is that the Roman gold coins seem to be more worn out and scratched than their Aksumite counterparts, possibly due to more usage. This difference in the treatment of the coins has led some historians to believe that the Aksumite gold coins only came to Yemen during the expedition of Kaleb of Aksum in the 520s. It is then further believed that these coins were gathered in Aksum, presumably over a length of time, given the range of dates they were minted, and then brought to Yemen in a single shipping. Because the mid-6^th century was a tumultuous period, with the outbreak of the Plague of Justinian and the wars in Yemen which led to the downfall of the Himyarite Kingdom, the Aksumite coins might not have been in use much. Instead, they may have been hoarded by the traders possessing them together with the Roman gold coins, which were already in use there. That might explain why they are so well-preserved.

Coins are always a fascinating source for Global History because they circulate to a high degree. The Aksumite gold is interesting because the coins were not minted in Europe but in the Kingdom of Aksum. Such a provenance that reaches far beyond Europe’s borders gives way to a fascinating analysis of a different context than the already exhaustively studied European coins. That is not to say that coins minted in a European context cannot be used in a global history perspective; European coins were circulating in all kinds of places throughout history, which in itself allows for an intriguing analysis. These coins, however, open up a different and maybe less studied context, which shows that coins from every part of the world circulated widely. Indeed, how might these coins have made their way from eastern Africa to Yemen? How they then came from Yemen to Austria is a fascinating aspect as well, especially considering the context of the Habsburg expeditions in the 19^th century with a critical eye.

As the hoard found by Munro Hay gave the impression that most Aksumite gold coins were in use in South Arabia, it suggested that the gold coins were mainly used for trading. Historiography today is more cautious in making such claims, however. Other analyses of coins are concerned with the connectedness between currencies in different regions; for instance, which coinage served as the model for another, or which weight standards they adhered to.

Such coins might also aid in breaking up traditional concepts of periodisation, as they show how Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were linked. This connectedness might not come to mind when first thinking about these two periods, but coins from antiquity were still in use and hoarded together with coins from the Early Middle Ages. This makes them all the more interesting for a global history analysis, beyond the Eurocentric undertones of traditional periodisation, which might not actually be fitting in a truly global context. Furthermore, one can, of course, also closely examine how they got to Austria via the expedition of the Austrian Academy for Sciences led by Hofrat Professor D. H. Müller in 1898/1899. This might lead to an engaging analysis about such expeditions in the 19^th century, studying them critically. After all, these excavations were done in a period heavily influenced by the colonial context. This poses questions, such as: why was the expedition conducted in the first place, or why were the coins taken away to Austria and not kept in Yemen? After all, these are objects initially had nothing to do with Austria, but to this day, they remain in the museum in Vienna.

So, with these coins, one can spot an intriguing and very long history of objects, fitting for global history because of the place of minting and wide circulation when they were in use. And their history by no means stops there; ultimately, long after they were hoarded, forgotten and then re-discovered and brought to Austria at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century, their story persists.