Essl Museum in Austria Closes After 17 Years

The Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg, Austria, closed its doors at the end of June 2016 after 17 years of operation. Founded by collector Karlheinz Essl, the museum housed a rich collection of Austrian art from the post-war period to the present, alongside international figures such as Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, and Jan Fabre, and a significant corpus of Australian Aboriginal art. The building, designed by Austrian architect Heinz Tesar, featured large panoramic windows that connected interior spaces with the Danube landscape. Karlheinz Essl stated that the family could no longer finance the museum privately and that additional public funding was not secured: the province of Lower Austria had offered a contribution if the central government matched it, but no concrete commitment came. From July 2016, the Essl collection will no longer be publicly visible, though the museum will continue as a storage facility for the family collection, with archives and conservation activities maintained. Final exhibitions included "Rendezvous," "Body & Soul," and "The eSeL Collection" by Viennese artist Lorenz Seidler. The Essl Art Award Cee, a prize for young artists from Central and Eastern Europe, will remain active, with winners exhibiting at the Ringturm in Vienna. The museum also hosted experimental music projects curated by composer Karlheinz Essl Junior, who gathered six musicians for a final performance.