Vienna Museum Shows Off Monumental Gift

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The collection amassed by Rita and Herbert Batliner of Lichtenstein includes major works by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Chagall, Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Kandinsky, Sam Francis, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, and Francis Bacon.

The exhibition, including paintings, pastels and gouaches, drawings, and sculptures, is only a part of the whole collection, acquired in May by the Albertina and worth an estimated $500 million. Key sections focus on French Impressionists, including a picture from Monet's "Water Lily" series, as well as portrait of a girl in pastel by Renoir. Other highlights are Modigliani's Young Woman in a Blouse, along with works by Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. Surrealists are also present, including as Joan Miro, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte, as well as German Expressionists and works by Picasso and Giacometti.

The Batliner collection is joined by a selection of 20 major pictures from the collection of Swiss producer Matthias Forberg, including paintings by Klee and Kandinsky.

The acquisition of the Batliner collection, which was also sought by major institutions like the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the Metropolitan museum in New York, is a coup for the Albertina's curator, Klaus Albrecht Schroder. It has aroused the jealousy of rivals in Vienna, with the head of the Museum of Modern Art, Edelbert Koeb, charging that it has no place in the Albertina.

On the contrary, the Albertina retorts on its website, saying it "is now Austria's only museum qualified to fill the gap existing hitherto in international, classical modern art."

"Monet to Picasso. The Batliner Collection" runs until April 6, 2008.