The Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI; 'Central Institute for Art History'), is an independent art-historical research institute in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany. The institute is located in the former administration building of the National Socialist party near Königsplatz. The institute is supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and Art, and is supervised by an international board of trustees. It defines itself as both a place of academic exchange and a platform for international encounters. It organizes lectures and symposia and edits various art history publications, for instance, the ''Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte'' and the ''Kunstchronik'', an art journal featuring articles on museological matters, important exhibitions and art-historical conferences, and the preservation of monuments and historic buildings. The institute also maintains one of the world's most comprehensive art libraries, with more than 650,000 volumes, 1,200 current periodicals and over 75,000 auction sales catalogues, and an extensive collection of photographs of artworks. After its foundation in 1946, the ''Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte'' started its activities in 1947 under its first director Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich. After his retirement in 1970,

Willibald Sauerländer Willibald Sauerländer (29 February 1924 in Bad Waldsee, Württemberg, Germany – 18 April 2018 in Munich, Germany) was a German art historian specializing in Medieval French sculpture. From 1970 to 1989, he was director of the prestigious Z ...

succeeded him as the second director of the ZI. The latter was followed in 1991 by Wolf Tegethoff. In 2015, Ulrich Pfisterer was also appointed director of the institute. Tegethoff and Pfisterer were joint leaders of the ZI until the end of 2017. In 2018 Ulrich Pfisterer became director of the ZI. The institute is located in a historic building on Königsplatz, the former Administrative Building of the National Socialist Party. The

Munich Central Collecting Point The Munich Central Collecting Point was a depot used by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program after the end of the Second World War to process, photograph and redistribute artwork and cultural artifacts that had been confiscated by the Na ...

had been installed in this building in June 1945 by the American military government. The mission of this art collecting facility was the restitution to the rightful owners of looted art confiscated by the National Socialist regime all over Europe during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.''Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte: History''
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References

External links

Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI) – Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zentralinstitut fur Kunstgeschichte Research institutes established in 1946 Research institutes in Munich 1946 establishments in Germany

See also

References

Further reading

External links