Erwin Hauser, Vice President of the Lentos Friends Association, donated his art collection of around
3,000 works to the City of Linz and the Lentos Kunstmuseum in 2024. To mark this occasion, the Lentos is now presenting a first “best of,” showcasing key highlights of this outstanding collectionwith a focus on Austrian artists.
The Erwin Hauser Collection is one of Austria’s most important private collections. It comprises paintings, sculptures, photographs, and graphic works by around 770 Austrian artists from the 19th century to the present day. With Cool. The Erwin Hauser Collection, the Lentos offers, for the first time, an in-depth look into this extraordinary trove of works, assembled by the Linz-based entrepreneur over a period of 25 years with trained discernment and great passion. Approximately 200 works from the collection, which comprises 2,994 objects in total and was entrusted to the City of Linz and the Lentos, are on display.

A Milestone for the Lentos
In 2024, Erwin Hauser – a successful entrepreneur in the field of innovative cooling technologies – donated the majority of his private art collection to the City of Linz, partly as a permanent loan and partly as a bequest upon his death. The City of Linz has entrusted the collection, valued at approximately €16.5 million, to the
Lentos. This marks the most significant expansion in the museum’s history – and in that of its predecessor, the Neue Galerie – since the 1953 acquisition of 109 works from the Wolfgang Gurlitt Collection. The Hauser Collection currently remains in its original depot, now leased by the City of Linz.
What makes the collection particularly remarkable is its breadth: it offers not only an extensive overview of Austrian art history, but also multiple phases of individual artists’ careers. Moreover, the entire Hauser Collection is accessible online via the museum’s website.