The Museum der Moderne is made up of two buildings. One is the Rupertinum, a baroque palace for new artist concepts in the old city centre. The building on the Mönchsberg presents modern and contemporary art.

Both buildings are dedicated to thematic exhibitions of art of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as for presentations from the collection and the Austrian Gallery of Photography.

Salzburg art dealer Friedrich Welz, who donated a large part of his private collection to the province of Salzburg, established the museum’s collection. Through Welz’ friendship with Oskar Kokoschka a considerable number of works of great Austrian expressionists ended up in the Rupertinum collection.

The Austrian Gallery of Photography, founded simultaneously with the Museum der Moderne, manages a collection of contemporary Austrian photography. The collection is made up of around 17,000 works with an emphasis on the first significant generation of photographers after the Second World War. The collection contains both important portfolios and individual photographs, including work by Inge Morath, Ernst Haas and Franz Hubmann as representatives of journalistically oriented documentary photography.


The collection contains individual works, series, cycles and photographic objects and documents of 300 Austrian photographers, ranging from photography in the 1950s to work by the computer generation. All artists are represented with a substantial body of work of up to 100 prints. Purchases made by the government also go into the Rupertinum collection. The catalogue is available online , though you’d have to know what you’re looking for in order to find it.

The collection continues to grow. Apart from that, the Gallery develops a range of activities like publishing, workshops and of course (traveling) exhibitions like the one on New York reporter Weegee.

Submission of portfolios and visits to the photography collection are possible upon pre-registration.


Every two years the museum awards the €5.000,- Rupertinum Photo Prize to a photography artist (an Austrian citizen or an artist who has lived for five years in Austria). The jury consists of photography experts.

The museum also has a restaurant, library and a program for schools.

Director: Toni Stooss.
Director of the Austrian Gallery of Photography: Dr. Margit Zuckriegl
 - +43 (0)662842220350
- margit.zuckriegl@mdmsalzburg.at