02. 07. 10. - 12:00

Leopold buried next week as search for successor set to start

Famed art collector Rudolf Leopold will be buried next week as the search for a new director of his museum gets underway.

Leopold, a Vienna-born eye specialist who started collecting art by Austrian painters such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele after World War Two, passed away at the age of 85 on Tuesday.

A spokesman for his foundation said today (Fri) that Leopold will be buried at the Grinzing cemetery in Vienna-Döbling next Tuesday. Details about the ceremony such as whether it will be a private or public event have not been disclosed.

Visitors to the museum – located in the Museumsquartier complex in the district of Neubau – are meanwhile invited to sign a book of condolences. Managers of the venue hoisted a black flag earlier this week.

Leopold was regarded as one of the leading experts on the work of Schiele who died in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic aged only 28.

Former People’s Party (ÖVP) Vienna Mayor Erhard Busek praised Leopold as an "art fanatic in a totally positive sense". Austria must never stop being grateful for his achievements, Busek stressed.

His foundation features more than 5,000 paintings and sculptures worth around eight billion Euros.

Rudolf Leopold’s son Diethard Leopold meanwhile announced the Leopold foundation’s board will put the position of the director of the museum out to tender. Leopold junior stressed he had no plans to apply for the post himself.

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