museum sPOtliGHt
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Weltmuseum
Wien offers a rare opportunity to understand and
appreciate what diversity can really mean.
One of the museum’s biggest challenges moving
92
forward will be to remain relevant in Austrian
public life. Animated by the desire to be involved
in the debates of its time and to become a true
forum for them, the museum seeks dialog with
marginalized Austrian communities as well as the
peoples of the countries from which its collections
originate. Already for some time now, the
institution’s curators have been careful to ensure
that voices other than just their own are heard
and represented in the exhibitions they produce.
We conclude here by expressing a hope for the
Weltmuseum’s future role in Austrian society, that
through the refl ection on the past that its collection
makes possible, what was once a symbolic place
of nationalism will become a critical tool that can
confront the rebirth of nationalism, conservatism,
and populism that is currently taking place.
NOTES
1. this expedition was organized on the occasion of the
marriage of maria leopoldina of Austria (1797–1826) to
the future emperor of Brazil, Pedro i (1798–1834).
2. engelsman previously was the head of the national
museum of ethnology at leiden and participated actively
in its renovation.
3. Budget cuts (16.6 million euros instead of the originally
projected 27.5 million), reduction of the exhibition
space from 4,600 square meters to 3,900 square meters
(fourteen galleries instead of nineteen), sharing of the
temporary exhibition spaces with the Kunsthistorisches
museum, and the abandonment of various projects, most
notably the museum for children.
4. the museum’s curators are Dr. Christian schicklgruber
(south and southeast Asia, the Himalayas); Dr. Claudia
Augustat (south America); mag. nadja Haumberger,
who has succeeded Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner (subsaharan
Africa); mag. manfred Kaufmann (photography
collection); Dr. habil. sri Kuhnt-saptodewo (southeast
Asia); Dr. Axel steinmann (north Africa, middle east,
Central Asia and siberia); Gerard Van Bussel (north
and Central America); Dr. Gabriele Weiss (Oceania and
Australia); and Dr. Bettina Zorn (east Asia: China, Korea,
Japan).
REFERENCES
Becker-Donner, etta & irmgard moschner, 1960.
Österreichisches Mäzenatentum von einst, Vienna:
museum für Völkerkunde.
de l´estoile, Benoît, 2010. Le Goût Des Autres: De
L’Exposition Coloniale Aux Arts Premiers, Paris:
Flammarion, p. 285.
Feest, Christian F., 1980. “Das museum für Völkerkunde
in Wien,” in Das Museum für Völkerkunde in Wien,
salzburg/Vienna: Residenz Verlag, pp. 13–35.
———, 1978. “Kurzer Abriß der Geschichte der Wiener
Völkerkundlichen sammlungen vor 1928,” in Archiv für
Völkerkunde 32, Vienna.
Köfl er, Barbara, 1995. “Zur Geschichte der Wiener Beninsammlung,”
in Armand Duchâteau (ed.) Benin. Kunst
einer afrikanischen Königkultur. Die Benin-Sammlung
des Museums für Völkerkunde Wien, munich/new York:
Prestel.
FiG. 20 (below): trade
carving in the form of a
gable mask, wheku koruru.
maori, new Zealand. 1985.
Wood, haliotis shell. H: 40 cm.
ex Hanns Peter.
Weltmuseum Wien, inv. 166.824.
GALLERIES
• In the Shadow of Colonialism
• An Austrian Mosaic of Brazil
• Cultural Struggle in Vienna
• Benin nd Ethiopia: Art, Power, Resilience
• A Village in the Mountains
• Stories from Mesoamerica
• At the Threshold of the Orient
• Into a New World
• Fascinated by Indonesia
• South Seas: Encounters with Paradise Lost
• Collecting Craze: I Suffer from Museomania!
• 1873—Japan Comes to Europe
• A New Perception: View on China
FiG. 19 (right): Quetzalcoatl
depicted as a feathered
serpent. Aztec, mexico.
15th–16th century.
Volcanic stone. H: 48 cm.
Weltmuseum Wien, inv. 12.406.