Würth Collection on tour

“There is no way around the Würth Collection in Salzburg,” reported the Salzburg Kronenzeitung newspaper on 18 May 2018. In the cathedral city, citizens and travelers not only encounter sculptures from the Würth Collection in the garden near Arenberg Palace, but also on the inner-city Walk of Modern Art. From May 2018, the Cathedral Museum also became a hotspot for art lovers: For the exhibition “Art to wonder at. Treasures from the Würth Collection”, Reinhold Würth exhibited precious works of art in the cathedral quarter of his adopted home of Salzburg, the exquisite beauty of which quickened the hearts of the large number of international visitors. Chambers of art and curiosities, for which such exquisite objects, rarely larger than the size of a hand charmer, were produced, arose during the 16th and 17th centuries at and for the princely courts of Europe, and were intended to reflect the exploding knowledge of the world. The passions of the collectors living at the time could be kindled both by the precise mechanism of an iron lock as well as by breathtaking, minutely detailed objects made of ivory. Almost everything that seemed essential at the time belonged in an art chamber: Nautilus goblets, painted tankards and tins, ivory reliefs, rare natural objects, wondrous items, automatons, and much more besides. The creative interplay between connoisseurship, in which no subtlety remained undiscovered, and the highest artistic standards engendered such fascination that the exhibition was extended.