Lentos Art Museum
The Lentos Art Museum (German: Kunstmuseum Lentos) is a museum of modern art in Linz, Austria, which opened in May 2003 as the successor to the Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz (New Gallery of the City of Linz). The museum was designed by Zurich-based architectural firm Weber & Hofer. It is long and has approximately sqft of floor space.
Also recorded as Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz · Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Wolfgang- Gurlitt-Museum
Lentos Art Museum

Otto Normalverbraucher · Self-photographed · CC BY-SA 2.0 at
- Name
- Lentos Art Museum
- Founded
- 1946
- Headquarters
- Austria
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
The Lentos Art Museum (German: Kunstmuseum Lentos) is a museum of modern art in Linz, Austria, which opened in May 2003 as the successor to the Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz (New Gallery of the City of Linz). The museum was designed by Zurich-based architectural firm Weber & Hofer. It is long and has approximately sqft of floor space.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Lentos Art Museum. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q686531 · wikipedia · Lentos Art Museum
In this article
Overview
Overview
The building's transparent glass façade is illuminated at night. It is located directly on the Danube between the Nibelungen Bridge and Brucknerhaus.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Lentos Art Museum • Established — 2003 05 • Location — Linz, Austria • Type — Art Museum • Collections — Modern art • Architect — Weber & Hofer • Website — www.lentos.at • Illustration — Lentos at night
History
History
One hundred twenty important art works from the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888–1965), including paintings and graphic works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Nolde, Corinth and Pechstein, became the foundation of the collection of the New Gallery of the City of Linz after World War II. Adding to these holdings, in 1953, Linz made the New Gallery a city museum with an active exhibition and acquisition programs. In 1998, the decision was made to build the Lentos Museum, which opened in May 2003. The museum presents significant themes and issues of contemporary art by displaying works of various schools of modern art from the Lentos collection and by exhibiting works of 20th century art on loan from other museums.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1946
Lentos Art Museum established.
1946
Lentos Art Museum is recorded from 1946.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Austria
Named but not plotted · 1
Lentos Art Museum is associated with Austria.
Country
Internationality of the sculpture collection
The sculpture collection holdings are continuously expanded through active acquisition policies. Since May 2004 the Viennese curator, critic and journalist Stella Rollig has been the director of the Lentos Art museum. In addition to the existing collection, modern art and the most current trends in contemporary art are presented in changing exhibitions.
The collection
The collection
The presentation of the collection is underpinned by the desire to restore the chronological sequence of creative works that are part of an important movement or style. The starting point is the 19th century. On display are works by Gustav Klimt, Gabriele Muenter, Valie Export, and Herbert Bayer. The museum collection includes around 1,500 works from the areas of painting, sculpture and object art, over 10,000 works on paper, and about 850 photographs, including significant contributions to the development of artistic photography by Alexander Rodtschenko and Man Ray. The earliest works among the museum's holdings are from the first half of the 19th century including Caspar David Friedrich and Johann Baptist Reiter. From the area of classical modernism the Lentos collection includes important paintings by Egon Schiele, Kokoschka, Corinth, and Max Pechstein. The collection also covers the inter-war period with works from German and Austrian Expressionism and New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). The period after 1945 is exemplified with works and ensembles of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Karel Appel, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Maria Lassnig, Markus Lüpertz, Arnulf Rainer, Eduardo Chillida, Tony Cragg, Gottfried Helnwein, Sean Scully, Anthony Caro, Elke Krystufek, and Ludwig Merwart.
Nazi-looted art and provenance research
Nazi-looted art and provenance research
For the Lentos Museum of Art the legacy of the Gurlitt Collection is "as brilliant as it is problematic". Wolfgang Gurlitt, a close contact of the director of the Hitler Führermuseum, Hermann Voss, was investigated for Nazi art looting in 1946, along with other members of the Gurlitt family. Wolfgang Gurlitt's art collection, which the museum purchased in, included artworks that had been looted by Nazis from Jewish collectors. The museum undertook provenance research to establish the origins and ownership history of the collection and the city of Linz created a dedicated provenance working group in 2007. As of 2019, 64 works of art had been investigated, of which 13 paintings were found to have looted art. Artworks restituted to the families of the Jewish collectors plundered by the Nazis include: • 1999: Lesser Ury, Die Näherin [The seamstress] (Inv. no. 138) • 2003: Egon Schiele, Stadt am Fluss [Town on the river] (Inv. no. 13) restituted to the heirs of Daisy Hellmann • 2009: Gustav Klimt, Damenbildnis [Portrait of a lady] (Inv. no. 149) restituted to the heirs of Aranka Munk • 2011: Wilhelm Trübner, Bildnis Carl Schuh [Portrait of Carl Schuh] (Inv. no. 104) Settlement with the heirs of Harry Fuld • 2012: 6 paintings by Anton Romako: Mädchen mit aufgestütztem Arm (Tochter des Künstlers), 1875, Inv. no. 10; Der Zweikampf (Kämpfende Ritter), Inv. no. 81; Zigeunerlager, Inv. no. 83; Mädchen mit Früchten, um 1875, Inv. no. 103; Ungarische Puszta (Strohschober in Bálványos), about1880, Inv. no. 104; Bildnis Karl Schwach, 1854, Inv. no. 145 restituted to the heirs of Oskar und Malvine Reichel (on loan to the Lentos) • 2015: Lovis Corinth, Othello, 1894, (Inv. Nr. 23) and Lovis Corinth, Schwabing (Blick aus dem Atelierfenster), 1891, (Inv. Nr. 24) restituted to the heirs of Jean and Ida Baer • 2015: Emil Nolde, Maiwiese (Maienwiese) [Meadow in May], 1915, (Inv. Nr. 94) restituted to the heirs of Dr. Otto Siegfried Julius Not all the artworks have been verified yet and provenance research continues.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q686531: Lentos Art Museum
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Lentos Art Museum”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Institutions
3,152 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Legion of HonorOrganisation
- Lehmbruck MuseumOrganisation
- Leighton HouseOrganisation
- LenbachhausOrganisation
- Leopold MuseumOrganisation
- Li Mei-shu Memorial GalleryOrganisation
- LibarnaOrganisation
- LiebieghausOrganisation
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Lentos Art Museum?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.