Opening: The ALBERTINA Museum – Celebrating 250 Years

May 11, 2026 | 6 PM (5.30 PM Doors)

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Please join us for the opening of The ALBERTINA Museum: Celebrating 250 Years. Presented in the 11th Floor Gallery at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, this special exhibition honors one of Europe’s foremost museums of graphic art and contemporary culture. In his inaugural keynote, Dr. Ralph Gleis will introduce the institution’s development, key collections, current program, and vision for the future. A subsequent conversation moderated by Dr. Stephanie Buhmann, Head of Visual Arts, Art, and Architecture at the ACFNY, and Q&A session with the audience will precede guided visit through the exhibition and reception for all participants.

ABOUT THE ALBERTINA MUSEUM

The museum’s origins trace back to Prince Albert Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Teschen, and Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria. United by a shared passion for art and Enlightenment ideals, they established an encyclopedic graphic art collection with the assistance of Count Giacomo Durazzo. Their acquisition of approximately 10,000 engravings in 1776 marked the founding moment of the Albertina. Following the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1919, the collection became property of the Republic of Austria and was opened to the public. Despite significant damage to the building during World War II, the artworks were safeguarded, enabling the museum to reopen and flourish in the postwar era.

Today, the Albertina houses over one million works on paper, including master drawings by Dürer, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Expanded through major acquisitions and collections, such as that of Prince Eugene of Savoy. From the early twentieth century onward, the museum incorporated works by artists including Gustav Klimt, Käthe Kollwitz, and Egon Schiele. Since the 1980s, the Albertina has increasingly prioritized contemporary art, continuing its tradition of growth and relevance.

THE ALBERTINA AND NEW YORK

The ALBERTINA shares a multifaceted history with the city, dating back not least to its founding day on 4 July 1776 — the very day on which the American Declaration of Independence was signed. The ALBERTINA and the United States of America therefore celebrate the same birthday. The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, who, like Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, was a Freemason. The two met in Paris in 1786, when Jefferson was accredited as envoy to France. It was also Duke Albert who acquired the oldest known depiction of New York. The work was created between 1650 and 1654, when the city was still known as “New Amsterdam”.

In addition, the ALBERTINA has long maintained a lively exchange with New York’s leading museums. For example, when the museum found itself in a precarious financial situation after the First World War, it sold duplicate prints from its own holdings in order to finance new acquisitions. Some of the works that were sold entered the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had only been established in 1916 and, like the Albertina itself, subsequently developed into one of the world’s foremost collections of works on paper. To this day, the ALBERTINA maintains close relationships with New York museums, particularly through an active exchange of loans and mutual support, and is, for instance, one of the principal lenders to the Metropolitan Museum’s major exhibition on Raphael.

Please find more information on the exhibition here.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Ralph Gleis, born in the German city of Münster in 1973, pursued studies in art history, history, and sociology at the universities of Münster, Bologna, and Cologne, earning his doctorate in art history at the University of Cologne with a dissertation on Anton Romako in 2008. Initial employment as a gallery assistant and as a writer for an art journal preceded his shift to museum work. He then held research assistant posts at the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp before assuming a research associate position at the Haus der Geschichte, a museum for the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, in Bonn. 2009 saw Gleis move to Vienna, where he joined the team of the Wien Museum as Curator of Painting and Graphics until 1900 and subsequently led the “New Permanent Exhibition” project as Curator of Sculpture. This was followed by his 2017 appointment as head of the Berlin State Museums’ Alte Nationalgalerie, whose newly created directorial post he assumed in 2022. Ralph Gleis became Director General of the ALBERTINA Museum on 1 January 2025.

Dr. Stephanie Buhmann (Moderator): Serves as Head of Visual Art, Architecture & Design at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY). She has conducted more than ninety published interviews with contemporary artists. Recent monographs include Frederick Kiesler: Galaxies (The Green Box, 2023), Ernst Caramelle: Two Dots, One Line (The Green Box, 2025), and the forthcoming Vally Wieselthier: Sculpting Modernism (The Green Box, 2026). She is a contributing author and co-editor of Roma Artist Ceija Stojka: What Should I Be Afraid of? (Hirmer Publishers, 2024), Touch Nature: Art in the Age of the Climate Crisis (Böhlau Publishers, 2024), and Judith P. Fischer and Uwe Hauenfels: Across Time. Form and Space (The Green Box, 2025). Image Credits: Marcin Muchalski & Sabrina Vertzman, New York

EVENING PROGRAM

5.30 PM | Doors open
6 PM | Opening remarks
Followed by a reception