The decision that the city’s art holdings should have their own museum finally fell in 1913. By this time, the collection already had a long history. It emerged from the collection of paintings that John William II, Elector Palatine founded together with his wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici in 1710.

In 1928 it was possible to acquire as a new abode the north-west complex of buildings erected in 1902 and converted as Ehrenhof by Wilhelm Kreis in 1926. Also on board: the Kunstgewerbemuseum and the Hetjens-Museum. The transfer of the academy’s excellent art collection in 1932 was decisive for the development of Museum Kunstpalast.

Altogether the collection is divided in five areas: The painting gallery includes highlights such as Rubens’ The Assumption of the Virgin Mary of 1616-18 and modern art with emphasis on the paintings of the German expressionists but also on younger movements such as the ZERO group. In addition, there are sculpture and applied arts, the graphic collection, and Glasmuseum Hentrich.

With the “Künstlermuseum” (Artists’ Museum), Museum Kunstpalast reopened its collections in 2001. The two Düsseldorf artists Thomas Huber and Bogomir Ecker reorganized the works together with the museum’s curators. Now old and new works enter into surprising dialogues, develop new relationships. Gone is the time of categorizing strictly by chronology or media. There are thematic rooms and a “Schule des Sehens” (the School of Seeing) where visitors can explore various approaches to perception.