The art gallery of the Counts Harrach was founded in a period when culture was flourishing in the estates of Austria. The three members of the old family responsible for the largest and most beautiful part of the collection, Counts Ferdinand Bonaventura I, Alois Thomas Raimund and Ernst Guido, expressed their interest in the visual arts by supporting contemporary artists and collecting older works in the time of Leopold I, Karl VI and Maria Theresia. During the time of Francis II, Count Johann Nepomuk Ernst extended the gallery considerably with a fourth large section which displays the development of the collection in the early nineteenth century.

http://harrach.nwy.at

Some 300 years ago Prince Paul Esterházy de Galántha established an entailed estate under primogeniture and laid the foundations for a series of collections which are today among the finest treasures of European culture.

Like his father, Count Nikolaus, Prince Paul I was not only the ruler of a "fairy kingdom" but also a generous patron and a passionate art collector. His cultural estate was an expression of power, dignity, princely representation and religious feeling.

www.esterhazy.at

The name of Schönborn is indelibly associated with a high period in European art history: between 1693 and 1746 the Schönborns, as princes and bishops in the Mainfranken and Mittelrhein regions were part of a period when construction was carried out at the highest aesthetic level. At the same time, Lothar Franz von Schönborn, Elector and Arch-Chancellor and four of his nephews, whom he was able to set up as regents in the bishoprics of Bamberg, Würzburg, Trier and Speyer-Worms, displayed themselves and their noble status in wide-ranging art collections which, in some cases, have been preserved as complete entitities.

The Painting Gallery in the Academy of Fine Arts and the Vienna Academy, founded in 1692, have been inseparably associated with each other during their 310-year history. Once the basis of the collection had been formed with the items awarded prizes each year, along with the inaugural works of members of the Academy, in 1822 the real foundation moment of the Gallery occurred when Count Lamberg-Sprinzenstein bequeathed his famous collections to the academy as a heritage foundation.

www.akademiegalerie.at

The Residenzgalerie in Salzburg presents painting of European rank on the second floor of the former Prince-Archbishop’s Residence in Salzburg. The splendid appointments of the museum, founded in 1923, are absolutely in keeping with the extremely valuable items in the Collections of Salzburg Province. An important component is part of the Old Austrian Czernin collection, which was acquired by Salzburg Province in 1980.

www.residenzgalerie.at

The Princely Collections include major works of European art from four centuries, and are today among the world’s most important private collections. Their origins lie in the 17th century. Like many other collections originating from that time, their roots are mainly in the Baroque ideal of princely patronage. The Liechtenstein family maintained that ideal consistently over many generations, expanding and complementing the collections. Active purchasing policies created major emphases with spectacular new purchases.

www.fuerstenhaus.li

The Oskar Reinhart Collection "Am Römerholz" is among the finest private collections assembled in the twentieth century. It comprises 207 works of European art from the Late Gothic period to the early twentieth century. The main focus is on nineteenth-century French painting, complemented by major Old Master paintings. The presentation of the works in Reinhart's carefully restored private villa enhances the intimate atmosphere of the surroundings and the very personal nature of the collection. Visitors are encouraged to round off their tour of the collection with a stroll in the historic gardens, which contain some remarkable sculptures.

www.roemerholz.ch

The Rockoxhuis, a patrician residence in Antwerp of immense cultural and historical value, was originally the abode of Nicolaas Rockox, one of the most important citizens of Antwerp around 1600. Rockox, who played a leading role in the civic life of his native city as burgomaster during the first half of the 17th century, was also of major importance for the city as a patron of the arts. His association, among others, with Peter Paul Rubens, to whom he gave considerable support, coupled with his friendship with the artist, enabled him to assemble an impressive collection of art over the years. Works by Pieter Aertsen, Brueghel, Jan Wildens or Anthonis van Dyck graced the rooms of his house along with other art treasures.

www.rockoxhuis.be

Located at the heart of Milan, the Museo Poldi Pezzoli houses one of the most important private collections in the world. It was assembled by its eponymous former owner, Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, who was the scion of a Milanese family with a passionate interest in art. In 1850, he began to furnish his city palace, thus laying the foundations of his superb collection of art. A succession of several rooms takes the visitor through the various epochs in the history of art. Paintings, arts and craft objects and porcelain ranging from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the Rococo are exhibited by epoch and grouped to complement one another. Highlights include paintings from the Renaissance by Botticelli, Mantegna, Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini as well as works from the 18th century by Tiepolo, Canaletto and Guardi. The collection has been open to the public since 1881.

www.museopoldipezzoli.it

The collection of the Principi Borromeo is one of the most important 19th-century aristocratic collections, having been mainly assembled by Prince Gilberto Borromeo V (1751–1837) between 1780 and 1830. The collection was originally open to the public under the name Museo Borromeo in one of the family's city palaces in Milan. During the Second World War it was removed for safekeeping shortly before the palace was destroyed in the aerial bombardment of the city. In 2007/08, following its restoration, the core of the Principi Borromeo Collection, the focus of which is on outstanding works from Renaissance Lombardy, will be exhibited first at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, followed by the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM in Vienna and finally on the Borromean Islands.

www.borromeoturismo.it