Leopold Museum Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger on Klimt, Schiele, and 30 Years of the Collection

In an interview, Leopold Museum director Hans-Peter Wipplinger discusses the museum's 30-year history since the 1994 donation of 5,200 works by Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation. The collection now comprises about 8,500 objects of Austrian and international art from the second half of the 19th century and Modernism. The museum, located in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier, is one of the most visited in the city and a leading institution for Viennese Secession art. Its permanent exhibition "Vienna 1900" embraces the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, displaying paintings, graphic works, and applied arts together. Current shows include "Unknown Familiars. The Vienna Insurance Group Collections" and "Splendor and Misery. New Objectivity in Germany." Upcoming exhibitions are "Rudolf Wacker. Magic and Abysses of Reality" (October) and "Poetry of Ornament. The Backhausen Archives" (November). In 2025, the museum will present "Times of Change. Egon Schiele’s last years. 1914–1918." Wipplinger emphasizes the museum's goals of preservation, accessibility, scientific documentation, and sustainability.