Museum opening of the year: The Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna: the restoration by Prince and Princess Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein of the family's Garden Palace in Vienna as a setting for works of art from the Liechtenstein collection has provided Austria with a major new museum. Andrew Wilton visited the palace, which opened to the public in March

Apollo, Dec, 2004 by Andrew Wilton

A feast of yet more Rubens follows in Gallery VIII, and in Gallery IX there hang famous portraits by him of his children, Clara Serena, a vividly characterful head, and Albert and Nikolaus, his young sons. These share walls with Van Dyck, including his wonderful three-quarter length Maria de Tassis (1629-30), one of the most seductive of all female portraits. Gallery X displays an array of Dutch landscapes and genre subjects, with Rembrandt's early Cupid with a soap bubble--a subject that would surely have intrigued Reynolds, who may have known the Goltzius print from which it seems to be derived.

The works of art are beautifully displayed in these stunning rooms, each of which is equipped with plenty of copies of a helpful descriptive leaflet. The Liechtenesteins are rightfully proud of what they have achieved, and intend to go on collecting. In the past few years they have acquired a gilt bronze figure of Marsyas tied to a tree, later converted into a depiction of St Sebastian--this is daringly attributed to Mantegna; a characteristically bold Hals portrait of a man that formerly belonged to Baron Albert de Rothschild; and a charming portrait of the infant Emperor Franz Joseph, aged two and dressed as a grenadier, by Waldmuller. These additions typify the imagination that has brought about the reinstatement of the collection in this wonderful palace: the whole achievement is a triumph for the Liechtenstein family, for Vienna and for art-lovers across the world.

For more information about the Liechtenstein Collection, visit www.liechtensteinmuseum.at

SHORTLISTED OPENINGS

The Weston Link, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh Designed by John Miller Partners, and opened in August, this underground building, housing public facilities (shop, restaurant and education rooms) links the National Gallery of Scotland with the Royal Scottish Academy, newly restored to house exhibitions. The building was reviewed in APOLLO in September. John Miller Partners had another success this year with the unveiling of their Fitzwilliam Museum extension, Cambridge (APOLLO, June, 2004).

The Enlightenment Gallery, British Museum, London

The removal of the British Library to its new home in 1998 denuded one of the British Museum's greatest interiors, the King's Library. In December 2003 the museum opened a new permanent display in the gallery, on the theme of the Enlightenment. Objects from the museum's collections evoke the intellectual world of the eighteenth century, from science and exploration to collecting and antiquarian scholarship. Assembled with great visual panache, the gallery is in effect an evocation of the museum's origins.

Sammlung Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden

Richard Meier's new building for the Frieder Burda Collection of twentieth-century and contemporary art opened in October Sited next to the Staatliche Kunsthalle (to which it is joined by a glass bridge) in the Lichtentaler park, Baden-Baden, the new, building is described by its architect as a 'big villa'. The collection focuses on what Frieder Burda calls 'classical modernism', with notable holdings of abstract expressionism and post-war German painting. The collection is vested in a charitable foundation, which has borne the entire 20 million [euro] cost of the building.