On the lower level of the Villa Liebieg, we present works of a wide variety of formats and materials from all of our collections in the Open Depot. The villa’s splendid attic is also accessible. And our “studioli” ‒ rooms whose elaborate wainscoting endows them with a special atmosphere ‒ likewise invite visitors to a tour of discovery.

With its presentation of selected works, the Open Depot provides a rare opportunity to view museum holdings that would otherwise be kept in storage for lack of space. They are arranged primarily according to size, material and conservatorial considerations; temporal and geographical criteria play a subordinate role. Surprising and novel juxtapositions as well as new possibilities for comparison come about as a result.

The villa’s attic rooms, accessed by way of the tower staircase, are not only full of atmosphere but also have a special treasure to offer: several small studies – called “studioli” in Italian ‒ stage pictures of the naked Venus, the re-adoption of classical imagery in the European modern era and the collection passion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also archaeological excavations in Greece and Egypt that were initiated in Frankfurt.