The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History), its mightly dome crowned by a bronze figure of Pallas Athene, houses on of the most important art collections in the world. It underwent restoration at the beginning of the nineties. In the second half of the 19th c. it was realized that Vienna had no counterpart of the great art galleries of London and Amsterdam, particularly since the imperial collections in Prince Eugene’s former summer mansion had become far too large for those premises. Karl Hasenauer and Gottfried Semper were charged with the task of drawing up plans for two splendid museums, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum. Between 1871 and 1891 they erected the vast pair of buildings which form the left and right-hand sides of Maria-Theresien Platz. Though the state was close to bankruptcy, the architects were under instructions not to make economies, and they were able to use expensive materials and commission highly-rated artists with the decoration of the interior. Among those whoeorked on the embellishment of the Museum’s interior were Viktor Tilgner, Hans Makart, Michael Munkacsy, the brothers Ernst and Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch.