Rietberg Museum

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Art museum in Zürich, Switzerland

title: "Rietberg Museum" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["art-museums-and-galleries-in-zurich", "anthropology-museums", "african-art-museums", "asian-art-museums-in-switzerland", "mesoamerican-art-museums", "cultural-property-of-national-significance-in-the-canton-of-zurich", "art-museums-and-galleries-established-in-1952", "1952-establishments-in-switzerland"] description: "Art museum in Zürich, Switzerland" topic_path: "geography/switzerland" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rietberg_Museum" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Art museum in Zürich, Switzerland ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Zuerich_Villa_Wesendonck.jpg" caption="The Wesendonck Villa, the main building of the Rietberg Museum"] ::

The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the largest art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest to be run by the city itself. In 2007, it received approximately 157,000 visitors.

Location and buildings

The Rietberg Museum is situated in the Rieterpark in Zürich, and consists of several historic buildings: the Wesendonck Villa, the Remise (or "Depot"), the Rieter Park-Villa, and the Schönberg Villa. In 2007 a new building known as "Smaragd" was opened, designed by Alfred Grazioli and Adolf Krischanitz. The addition of this largely subterranean building more than doubled the museum's exhibition space.

The museum is located near Zürich Enge railway station, and can also be reached by tram line #7 and bus line #33.

History

In the early 1940s, the city of Zürich purchased the Rieterpark and the Wesendonck Villa. In 1949, the villa was selected, by referendum, to be rebuilt into a museum for the art collection of Baron von der Heydt which he had donated to the city in 1945. This was carried out in 1951-52 under the architect Alfred Gradmann. The Rietberg Museum was opened on 24 May 1952. Johannes Itten, the Swiss expressionist painter, was director of the museum until 1956.

In 1976, the city acquired the Schönberg Villa, which had been threatened with demolition, and opened it in 1978 as an extension of the museum. Today, the villa is also home to an extensive non-lending library administrated by the museum.

Organisation and funding

The Rietberg Museum is operated by the presidential department of the city of Zürich. In 2007, it employed around one hundred people. About half of the funding comes from the city, while the other half is raised through revenue, sponsors, and donations. Additions to the collection come mostly from donations.

Publishing activities

The museum established an in-house press shortly after its founding in 1952. Initially, it published catalogues of the museum's Asian and African artworks, as well as occasional short monographs. The museum's publishing activity has increased since 1985, in connection with the large special exhibitions that it has organised since then, and it now publishes around five new titles per year.

Since 1991, the museum also publishes Artibus Asiae, a biannual scholarly journal on the arts and archaeology of Asia.

Sculpture

File:Museum Rietberg 01.jpg|Exhibition room in the Wesendonck Villa File:Museum Rietberg 02.jpg|Exhibition room in the Wesendonck Villa File:Museum Rietberg 06.jpg|In the Depot File:Figurenpaar Ägypten Museum Rietberg RAG 1.jpg|pair of figures, Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, c. 2400 BCE File:Wei Votivstele Museum Rietberg.jpg|Votive stele with Buddha Shakyamuni, China, Eastern Wei Dynasty, c. 536 CE File:Fudo Myoo Museum Rietberg RJP 21.jpg|Acala, king of the mystical knowledge; Japan, Fujiwara clan, 12th century File:Shiva Nataraja Museum Rietberg RVI 501.jpg|Shiva Nataraja, Chola dynasty, 12th century File:Thirthankara Suparshvanath Museum Rietberg RVI 306.jpg|Idol of Suparśvanātha, the 7th Jain Tīrthankara, India, 14th century File:Benin Stosszahn Museum Rietberg RAF 607 img02.jpg|Carved elephant tusk, Benin Empire, Nigeria, 17-18th Century File:Abbaga Daraka and Koti or Chennaya Museum Rietberg 2008-51-52.jpg|Abbaga Daraka Idol

Painting

File:3 Master of the Devasano Pado. A Monk is Greeted at the Gate of the Coronation Hall Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript. ca. 1475. Museum Rietberg, Zurich.jpg|A Monk is Greeted at the Gate of the Coronation Hall. Folio from a Kalpasutra Manuscript. India, ca. 1475. File:Shokei Nansen zanbyo 1495 RJP 438 detail.jpg|Nanquan Puyuan kills a cat by Shōkei Kenkō. Japan, 1495 File:5 Masters of the Dispersed Bhagavata Purana. Krishna and Balarama Taking the Cattle to Graze Folio from a Bhagavata Purana Manuscript 1520-40. Museum Rietberg, Zurich.jpg|Krishna and Balarama Taking the Cattle to Graze. Folio from a Bhagavata Purana Manuscript. India, 1520-40 File:Giv battling Tur.jpg|Giv battling Tur. Miniature by Siyavush Beg from the Shahnameh of Shah Ismail II. Qazvin, 1576-77. File:Vishwamitra brings Rama and Lakshmana to his hermitage.jpg|Vishwamitra brings Rama and Lakshmana to his hermitage. Folio from the Mughal Ramayana. India, c. 1594 File:8 Nasiruddin. Varati Ragini folio from the Chawand Ragamala series, Chawand, Rajasthan, 1605, Museum Rietberg, Zurich.jpg|Varati Ragini, folio from the Chawand Ragamala series by Nasiruddin. Mewar, 1605 File:Shepherds and nobles welcome a mounted prince and princess.jpg|Shepherds and nobles welcome a mounted prince and princess. Attributed to Muhammad Qasem. Isfahan, ca. 1648 File:The Devi Rides in State.jpg|The Devi Rides in State. Folio from a Devi series attributed to Kripal of Nurpur. Nurpur, c. 1670 File:Gong Xian. Thousand peaks and ten thousand valleys. Museum Rietberg.(mounting).jpg|Thousand peaks and ten thousand valleys by Gong Xian. China, c. 1670 File:Raga Madhava, Folio from the Ragamala series.jpg|Raga Madhava, by the 2nd Master of the Shangri Ramayana series. Probably Bahu, c. 1720 File:Varaha and Hiranyaksha.jpg|Varaha and Hiranyaksha. Folio from a Bhagavata Purana Series by Manaku of Guler. Guler, c. 1740 File:Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota examining a painting with Nainsukh.jpg|Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota examining a painting with Nainsukh by Nainsukh. Jasrota, 1745-1750 File:Ragini Madhumadhavi - Girl flees from a storm.jpg|Ragini Madhumadhavi, by Jay Krishna. Malpura, c. 1756 File:Re-Enacting Krishna's marvellous Deeds, Folio from the Bhagavata Purana series.jpg|Re-Enacting Krishna's marvellous Deeds, Folio from the Bhagavata Purana series ascribed to a Master of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh. India, c. 1780-1785

References

[http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/hbd/de/index/hochbau/publikationen/museum_rietberg.html Museum Rietberg. Die Erweiterung] {{webarchive. link. (2011-09-27 City of Zürich. {{in lang). de
[http://www.baunetzwissen.de/objektartikel/Sicherheitstechnik_Erweiterung-Museum-Rietberg-in-Zuerich_CH_216738.html Erweiterung Museum Rietberg in Zürich/CH] ''BauNetz''. {{in lang. de
[http://www.bauwelt.de/sixcms/media.php/829/10798035_65a045dd87.pdf Museum Rietberg in Zürich] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-18 Hubertus Adam, ''Bauwelt'' 17, 2007. {{in lang). de
[http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/kultur/de/index/institutionen/museum_rietberg/ueber_uns/sponsoring.html Sponsoring]{{dead link. (April 2018). de
[http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/kultur/de/index/institutionen/museum_rietberg/publikationen/verlag_museum_rietberg.html Verlag Museum Rietberg]{{dead link. (April 2018). de
[http://d-nb.info/gnd/2019229-0 List of publications by the Rietberg Museum's press] Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. {{in lang. de

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::