In 2024, Erwin Hauser, Vice President of the Lentos Freunde [Friends of Lentos Association], gifted his art collection encompassing 2,994 works to the City of Linz and the Lentos. In doing so, he enabled the museum to undergo its greatest expansion since its foundation through the acquisition of the Wolfgang Gurlitt Collection in 1953.

To mark the occasion, Lentos is presenting a first best-of exhibition, providing insights into the history of its creation and showcasing the highlights of this outstanding collection of predominantly Austrian artists which the Linz-based entrepreneur has built up over the past 25 years using his expert judgement.

The tour through art history begins in a specially designed ​“Studiolo” with spectacular landscapes, portraits and genre depictions from the 19th century. The expressive, at times bizarre painting of the interwar years is supplanted by the dream worlds of the Viennese Phantasts. Monumental canvases created by the abstract painters of the 1950s can be seen alongside masterpieces by the Neue Wilde [New Fauves], neo-expressionists who dominated art in the 1980s and compete and enter into dialogue with three-dimensional objects. Other rooms are dedicated to Viennese Actionism and contemporary female artists who are once again defying the boundaries of art.

The Erwin Hauser Collection, considered to be among the most important private collections in Austria, comprises paintings, sculptures, photographs and drawings by some 770 Austrian artists from the 19th century to the present day.