The Central Collecting Point and the founding of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte

The removal of art works and cultural properties from their provisional storage locations to Munich began in June 1945. These remote storage facilities included Schloss Neuschwanstein, Kloster Buxheim, the salt mine near Altaussee and numerous other locations.

On arrival the art objects were registered and labelled with an accession number (the so-called M- or Munich number) and information about provenance, storage location, the item and its technique, as well as a short description. Restitution to the affected European countries and within Germany began in August 1945. In September 1949 the American military government turned over to the German officials the responsibility for the safekeeping and restitution of the looted artworks that still remained in the Collecting Point.

In 1948 the US Military Government established the US Information Center in the former „Führerbau“, neighbouring the Collecting Point. The exhibitions on modern and international art, mostly on non-objective painting, which were shown in the „Collecting Point Gallery“ from 1949 meant an explicit contrast to the art fostered by the nazi regime. As part of the US program of „re-education“ these exhibitions aimed at the reconstruction of a liberal and international art scene in the US occupation zone.

The founding director of the institute was Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich (1903-1978) who was supported during the initial years by Wolfgang Lotz (1912-1981), acting director of the ZI in 1946-47, along with the head of the library Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus (1909-1999).