KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM

(German: Museum of Art History), art museum in Vienna. In addition to its many famous paintings, the museum contains important collections of sculpture, Oriental art, and decorative arts. The museum's acquisitions are in the main a result of the rich accumulation of treasures by successive Habsburg rulers from the 16th century onward, notably by Archduke Leopold William in the mid-17th century. The painting collection is especially noted for its Renaissance and Baroque pictures of the Italian, German, Flemish, and Spanish schools.