The Albertina at 250

How did the Albertina start in 1776?

With a gift. In early July 1776 Count Giacomo Durazzo, the Austrian ambassador in Venice, presented Albert and Maria Christina with nearly 1,000 works on paper, a selection the couple had asked him to put together.

Durazzo was a Genoese nobleman, brother of a Doge of Genoa, and he had firm ideas about what a print collection was for. Wikipedia quotes his aim: a collection "for posterity" that would serve education and morality. The Vienna Tourist Board's anniversary notes add that the couple had commissioned the selection three years earlier, on a visit to Venice.

The couple kept buying. By the time Albert died in 1822 the collection had grown to about 14,000 drawings and 160,000 prints. His heirs added more, and in 1920 the holdings were joined with the print collection of the former imperial court library. The palace took the name The Albertina in 1921.

Who were Albert and Maria Christina?

Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen gave the museum its name. Archduchess Maria Christina, his wife and Maria Theresa's favourite daughter, brought the fortune that paid for the collecting and was an artist herself.

For a long time the story was told as Albert's. The Albertina's own anniversary page corrects that: Marie Christine, as the museum spells her, endowed the marriage with the wealth behind the purchases, and she had drawn and painted since her youth, which shaped what the couple bought. One of her own watercolours, after Chardin, appears in Her Story this winter.

The couple lived for years in Brussels, where Albert was governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, and the collection travelled with them. Back in Vienna, Albert took over the old Palais Tarouca on the Augustinian Bastion, right beside the Hofburg, and had it extended. Habsburg archdukes lived there for about 100 years, which is why the building has 20 restored State Rooms today. Our guide to the State Rooms walks through them.

What did the Albertina show for its 250th anniversary?

Three main shows: Collecting for the Future (19 June to 11 October 2026), Her Story. Women Artists of the Albertina (until 14 February 2027) and Picasso - Bacon (until 31 January 2027).

Collecting for the Future. 250 Years of the Albertina Museum told the history of the collection through its stars: drawings and prints by Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, Bruegel and Schiele, with Dürer's Hare as the headline loan from its own storage. It closed on 11 October.

Her Story opened on 30 October. The museum calls it the first stocktaking of the women artists in its collection, five centuries from early engravers to VALIE EXPORT, with Maria Sibylla Merian, Angelica Kauffmann, Berthe Morisot, Käthe Kollwitz and Maria Lassnig in between. Picasso - Bacon brings together about 70 works from museums and private collections. Bacon became a painter after seeing Picasso, and the show puts them wall to wall.

Around them the year ran a long list: Daumier, Richard Prince, Helga Philipp, Shara Hughes, KAWS at Albertina Modern, and the open house weekend of 4 and 5 July, the founding anniversary, with free entry.

Is Dürer's Hare still on display?

No. The original Hare of 1502 went back into storage when Collecting for the Future closed on 11 October 2026. A copy normally hangs at the end of the State Rooms route.

The watercolour is light-sensitive, so the museum shows it only every few years and for a few months at a time. Before 2026 the last outing was the big Dürer exhibition of 2019 and 2020, which is why the Vienna Tourist Board called this year's showing "something of a sensation". Visitors who caught it in the summer said as much: Julia, in a 5-star review from Aug 2026, wrote "Dürer's Hare is incredible."

If you visit now, look for the copy, and set your expectations for the rest of the old master holdings the same way. Most drawings rest in the study rooms. What you see is the current exhibitions, the State Rooms and the Batliner paintings. Our guide to what is on view lists the lot.

How has the Albertina changed in its 250 years?

From a private print collection in an archducal palace to a museum on three sites: the Albertina itself, Albertina Modern on Karlsplatz since 2020 and Albertina Klosterneuburg since 2024.

The 20th century was rough on the building. The palace was taken from the last archduke in 1919, bombed in March 1945 and rebuilt after the war. A full refurbishment ran from 1998 to 2003, and Hans Hollein's long flat roof over the entrance on the bastion came in 2008.

The painting side grew late. The Batliner Collection, Monet to Chagall, has been on loan since 2007. The Essl Collection of contemporary art came later and now feeds the shows at Albertina Modern, which opened in the 1865 Künstlerhaus on 27 May 2020. Albert and Maria Christina bought the art of their own day, and the museum still says that is the point: Arnulf Rainer's retrospective from 12 November draws on about 600 of his works in the collection.

How do you visit the Albertina in its anniversary year?

Buy the standard Albertina ticket (EUR 20.90 in 2026, free under 19): it covers the State Rooms, Monet to Chagall and every exhibition open on the day, and it has no time slot.

Tickets bought ahead are valid for a year, for one entry during opening hours. The museum opens daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., until 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday. Plan two to three hours with the current exhibitions. Albertina Modern is a separate building with its own ticket, EUR 17.90, or take the combined ticket at EUR 29.90.

Reduced prices (EUR 17.50 for 65+ and under 26) need ID at the door. Leave the backpack and umbrella in the free lockers on Level -1. Full prices in our ticket guide.

Her Story, Picasso - Bacon and the State Rooms on one open-dated entry, sold by the Albertina itself.

★ 4.7 · 2 to 3 hours · from $23

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