Opening: The Journey of the Pictures – Linz

During World War II, the Salzkammergut was unrivalled among Austria’s regions as a transshipment point and a safe haven for outstanding works of art of European art history.
For the “Führermuseum” Hitler was planning for Linz, he used the Aussee salt mines as holding areas for works of art. Nor was he alone. Leading Austrian museums were also availing themselves provisionally of mines, churches, and even pubs in St. Agatha, Bad Aussee, Altaussee, and in Bad Ischl/Lauffen as temporary places of storage and safekeeping. 
The exhibition sets off in an exemplary manner in search of works of art, which were hoarded, stored, looted, aryanized, forcibly sold, shifted to the black market, auctioned off or salvaged in the Salzkammergut in World War II. The paths these works of art struck out into the wide world were the consequence of their “uprooting”. The exhibition features masterpieces by such artists as Arnold Böcklin, Lovis Corinth, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Francesco Guardi, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz von Lenbach, Hans Makart, Edvard Munch, Moritz von Schwind, Max Pechstein, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Tiziano Vecellio, and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. 
The contemporary installation Ruinenwert [The Value of Ruins] (2019) by German artist Henrike Naumann expands the exhibition architecture designed by the artist-and-architect duo Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch. 
The exhibition Reise der Bilder functions as an important cross-border project focusing on Austria (Linz / Salzkammergut) – Italy – Germany – Netherlands – France.