Gustav Klimt, the MAK, and Immendorf Castle Burnt, Destroyed, Vanished?

8 May 1945 not only marks the end of the Second World War, it also stands for one of the greatest losses in cultural assets in Austrian history, triggered by a devastating fire that ravaged Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria. Even today, the events surrounding the fire in the country seat of the Freudenthal family, which served as a valuable and seemingly safe art storage depot in the Second World War, have not been fully clarified. The exhibition offers profound insight into the sheer scale of the disaster.

In addition to the three faculty paintings for the Main Ceremonial Hall of the University of Vienna with the corresponding composition designs, the works that were burned include the overdoor paintings Music (1897/98) and Schubert at the Piano (1899) from the Palais of Nikolaus Dumba on Vienna’s Ringstraße as well as the paintings The Golden Apple Tree (1903), Country Garden with Calvary (1912), Wally (1916), Friends II (1916/17), Garden Path with Chickens (1916), and Leda (1917) from the expropriated collection of August and Serena Lederer.

The State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna (now the MAK) lost to the flames: the Laxenburg Room stored in Immendorf Castle, various objects from the MAK Asia Collection, arts and crafts from the early modern period, over fifty pieces of furniture, leather wallpaper, twelve carpets, and the Möchling Tomb, a wooden shrine carved in the shape of a Gothic church from the 15th century.

Alongside original plans and a new architectural model of the castle, the exhibition will show a new film documentary on the events at Immendorf Castle with interviews with witnesses of the period. Original documents such as recovery lists kept at the MAK and valuable archive material provide further profound insights into the events.

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An exhibition by the MAK in cooperation with the Klimt Foundation, Vienna.
Curated by Peter Weinhäupl (Klimt Foundation) and Rainald Franz (MAK).

Exhibition dates: July 16, 2025 – September 21, 2025