For the Principality and House of Liechtenstein, 2019 is an important commemorative year: on 23 January 1719, Emperor Charles VI combined the imperial lordship of Schellenberg and the imperial county of Vaduz to create the imperial principality of Liechtenstein. Prince Anton Florian I von Liechtenstein was its first lord.

This event, now 300 years in the past, is being celebrated by the Albertina in Vienna—the city where the family resided until 1938—with a major exhibition. Works ranging from the painting Venus by Peter Paul Rubens to the life-sized bronze sculpture of Christ in Distress by Adriaen de Vries and the recently acquired Bronze Bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, as well as selected artistic treasures from the family’s world-famous collection of Biedermeier works, will stand at the centre of this presentation.

The Princes of Liechtenstein have already shown their collections in important museums all over the world. However, they have never been accessible to the public in Vienna in their entire breadth, much less so since the new acquisitions of the past 15 years. With this presentation at the Albertina Museum, it will be possible to experience the collections’ most valuable works and their singular quality in a new light.