From 27 May 2021

In Renaissance and Baroque Europe, many rich princes had representative cabinets of curiosities. They were supposed to demonstrate the owner’s wealth, artistic understanding and zeitgeisty spiritual level.

Nora von Watteck was Salzburg’s most prominent folklorist. Her interest in art history was fostered early on by her grandfather, an antique dealer who had a cabinet of curiosities of his own.

Nora von Watteck started to add to her grandfather’s cabinet of curiosities located in the Brodgasse Alley in Salzburg. After Nora von Watteck’s death in 1993, her son Arno replenished the collection und organised it.

Thanks to close ties between Arno von Watteck and museum director Hermann Mayrhofer, this cabinet of curiosities now forms part of the Museum of Mining and Gothic Art Leogang. The exhibition aims at preserving the memory of Nora von Watteck as well as the outstanding collection, making it accessible to the public.