Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein
born 1945
Anthony Buckley & Constantine Ltd., Portrait of Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, 2008, © Anthony Buckley & Constantine Ltd.
Predecessor
Prince Franz Josef II von und zu LiechtensteinAfter obtaining a degree in business administration and economics, before he succeeded to the title Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein set about reconsolidating the family fortunes, which had suffered losses of up to eighty per cent as a consequence of the events of 1945. Later on he also successfully reorganized the patrimonial holdings of art, enriching the Princely Collections with more than one thousand objects to date. In many cases it has been possible to make good the often painful losses from the holdings as a result of the sales that had to be made during the post-war period.
Hans-Adam II was born in Zurich on 14 February 1945. He married Countess Marie Aglaë Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1940–2021) on 30 July 1967. The couple had four children, of whom the first-born is Hereditary Prince Alois (b. 1968).
For his father Prince Franz Josef II von Liechtenstein (1906–1989), the name given to his eldest son was intended to hark back to his great forebear Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein (1657–1712), ‘the Rich’, as he was popularly known. Both were born into a time of upheaval, the latter in the epoch of the wars against the Ottomans, the present prince in the period following the Second World War, when every effort went towards preserving as much as possible of what had survived, and to seeking a new beginning in precarious financial circumstances.
In 2004, as his father’s representative, Hereditary Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein assumed the duties of the head of state of the Principality of Liechtenstein. Since then he has taken over the affairs of government to an ever increasing extent.
A NEW START
After Hans-Adam II had been entrusted with reorganizing the management of the family fortune in 1970 and had taken over the regency as his father’s permanent representative in 1984, he succeeded in an extraordinarily short space of time in placing their economic activity on a solid and successful footing, despite the loss of the Bohemian estates. The thorough recapitalization of their economic circumstances and the reorganization of the family assets in foundations ultimately provided the basis for the present-day positioning of the Collections.
Together with Prince Franz Josef II, Hans-Adam II went about reorganizing the Collections with circumspection, and the decisions he took with his father brought about a turning point in their collecting policy. As a result, numerous important works of art found their way into the Princely Collections during the 1970s and 1980s.
The thorough recapitalization of their economic circumstances and the reorganization of the family assets in foundations ultimately provided the basis for the present-day positioning of the Collections.
BACK AT THE FORMER GALLERY LOCATIONS
An important stage in the return of the Collections to public awareness and to the international museum scene was the reopening of the Liechtenstein Garden Palace as the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM in March 2004 with an exhibition of works from the late Gothic age to the Baroque. The palace now hosts a permanent and publicly accessible exhibition of major works from these epochs.
It is intended that as much as possible of the Collections’ holdings should be on public display, both by varying the standing exhibition at the two palaces in Vienna and in temporary exhibitions taking place worldwide.
Since the spring of 2013 neoclassical and Biedermeier art has been on show at the City Palace on Bankgasse, in part displayed in the elaborate period interiors dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. Hans-Adam II had both palaces comprehensively restored with the aim of presenting as much as possible of the Collections’ holdings, both by varying the standing exhibition at the two palaces in Vienna and in temporary exhibitions shown at major museums in Europe, Asia and America.
THE REACQUISITION OF WORKS FORMERLY IN THE HOLDINGS
On the one hand, Hans-Adam II endeavoured to consolidate the extant holdings by selling minor works and objects, and on the other to enrich the Collections with substantial new acquisitions. The latter have now put their stamp on a number of different fields in the collection. Of elemental importance are the care and attention that are devoted to restoration.
Where possible, the prince attempts to reacquire high-quality pieces that were sold from the Collections during the post-war period. Many works of art such as the extremely rare “Grand Mogul” tapestry cycle dating to around 1715 from the Berlin manufactory of Jean Barraband II (1677–1725) have been reintegrated into the holdings in this way.
Where possible, the prince attempts to reacquire high-quality pieces that were sold from the Collections during the post-war period.
EXPANDING AND CONSOLIDATING THE COLLECTIONS
The profile of the Collections is to be more clearly defined and extended through acquisitions of the highest quality in areas that are already strongly represented, and through new acquisitions in fields that are only sparsely represented or not at all. The overall focus of the Collections is on European art from the fourteenth to the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
The profile of the Collections is to be more clearly defined and extended through acquisitions of the highest quality.
The first acquisition advocated by Hans-Adam II, while his father Franz Josef II was still reigning prince, was Peter Paul Rubens’s oil sketch for “Mars and Rhea Silvia”. Over the course of his own reign Hans-Adam II has acquired numerous important works for the Collections, including paintings by Giovanni Battista Moroni, Quentin Massys, Frans Hals, Jean Valentin de Boulogne, Francesco Hayez and Hans Makart.
Giovanni Battista Moroni (1521–1580), Porträt des Prospero Alessandri, um 1560
Expressed not least in these acquisitions is the prince’s keen interest in bronze sculpture and his connoisseurship in this field, by which he sets great store, wholly in keeping with family tradition.
In the case of the sculptures the new acquisitions range from Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo Sansovino and Alessandro Algardi to Jakob Gabriel Müller (called Mollinarolo) and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Hans-Adam II enriched the holdings of bronzes by the great early master of the Renaissance Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi (called Antico, 1455–1528) with major pieces including the “Equestrian Statuette of Marcus Aurelius”, “Laocoon”, “Hercules” and the monumental bust of Marcus Aurelius. Expressed not least in these acquisitions is the prince’s keen interest in bronze sculpture and his connoisseurship in this field, by which he sets great store, wholly in keeping with family tradition.
In the field of Biedermeier painting, the gaps that had been left by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein’s generous endowments to other galleries and museums were closed again. Together with contemporaneous watercolours, porcelain and furniture, major works by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Friedrich von Amerling and Peter Fendi define the finest and most comprehensive collection of art from this epoch.
The holdings of furniture were expanded by select pieces by cabinet makers and other masterpieces, thereby enhancing their quality. Boulle objects from Parisian and Viennese workshops, the Badminton Cabinet and furniture by Roentgen characterize the appearance of the Collections in this field. In the field of porcelain Hans-Adam II enriched the collection with important pieces by du Paquier and from the Sorgenthal era in Vienna as well as from the Ginori manufactory in Doccia near Florence
In the field of Biedermeier painting, the gaps that had been left by Prince Johann II von Liechtenstein’s generous endowments to other galleries and museums were closed again.
The catalogue of the prince’s acquisitions accompanying the exhibition “Der Fürst als Sammler” (‘The Prince as Collector’) held at the LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM in 2010 contained 802 items in the fields of painting, prints and drawings, sculpture, furniture, porcelain, arms and other genres, a number that has continued to increase steeply over recent years.
