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Former name | Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum |
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| Established | 1904 |
| Location | Museum Island, Berlin |
| Coordinates | 52°31′19″N13°23′41″E / 52.52194°N 13.39472°E /52.52194; 13.39472 |
| Type | Art museum |
| Website | smb.museum |
 Interactive map of Bode Museum | |
| Part of | Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin |
| Criteria | Cultural: ii, iv |
| Reference | 896 |
| Inscription | 1999 (23rdSession) |
| Area | 8.6 ha (21 acres) |
| Buffer zone | 22.5 ha (56 acres) |
TheBode Museum (German:Bode-Museum), formerly called theEmperor Frederick Museum (German:Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum), is alisted building on theMuseum Island in thehistoric centre ofBerlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of German EmperorWilliam II according to plans byErnst von Ihne inBaroque Revival style. The building's front square featured a memorial to German EmperorFrederick III, which was destroyed by the East German authorities.[1] Currently, the Bode-Museum is home to the Skulpturensammlung, the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst and the Münzkabinett (sculpture, Byzantine art, and coins and medals).[2] As part of the Museum Island complex, the Bode-Museum was inscribed on theUNESCOWorld Heritage List in 1999 because of its outstanding architecture and testimony to the development of museums as a cultural phenomenon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[3]
Originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum afterEmperor Frederick III, the museum was renamed in honor of its first curator,Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956.[citation needed]
DuringWorld War II, portions of the collection were stored in an antiaircraft tower called theFlakturm Friedrichshain for safe keeping. In May 1945, several fires destroyed some of the collections. In total, more than 400 paintings and about 300 sculptures were missing due to looting during the fire or destroyed in the fire itself.[4]
Closed for repairs since 1997, the museum was reopened on 18 October 2006, after a €156 million refurbishment.[5] True to the ethos of its founding director, Wilhelm von Bode, who believed in mixing art collections,[6] it is now the home for a collection of sculptures,Byzantine art, andcoins and medals.[7] The presentation of the collections is both geographic and chronological, with the Byzantine and Gothic art of northern and southern Europe displayed separately on the museum's first floor and a similar regional division of Renaissance and Baroque art on its second floor.[6]
The sculpture collection displays artwork of theChristian Orient (with an emphasis onCopticEgypt), sculptures fromByzantium andRavenna, sculptures of theMiddle Ages, theItalianGothic, and the earlyRenaissance, including the controversialFlora attributed by Bode toLeonardo da Vinci but now widely argued to be a 19th-century work. Late German Gothic works are also represented byTilman Riemenschneider, the south German Renaissance, and PrussianBaroque art up to the 18th century. In the future, selected works of theGemäldegalerie will be integrated into the sculpture collection. This is reminiscent of William von Bode's concept of "style rooms", in which sculptures, paintings, and crafts are viewed together, as was usual in upper middle-class private collections.
TheMünzkabinett ("coin cabinet") is one of the world's largestnumismatic collections. Its range spans from the beginning ofminting in the 7th century BC inAsia Minor up to the present day. With approximately 500,000 items, the collection is a unique archive for historical research, while its medal collection also makes it an important art exhibition.[citation needed]
Writing in theFinancial Times on the occasion on the museum's reopening in 2006,Neil MacGregor, director of theBritish Museum, hailed "the most comprehensive display of European sculpture anywhere." He added: "It is no exaggeration to say that in the new Bode Museum, Europe will be able for the first time to read its history — aesthetic and religious, intellectual and political — in a three-dimensional form."[6]
On 27 March 2017, a solid gold coin called theBig Maple Leaf, issued by theRoyal Canadian Mint in 2007 as a commemorative piece, was stolen from the museum.[8][9] The coin, at 50 cm in diameter and 2.8 cm in thickness, is made of 24-karat gold and is worth around €3.7 million.[10] A ladder was found on the train tracks nearby, leading German police to speculate that the thief entered the building by breaking open a window in the back of the museum next to the railway tracks.[8][10]
The thieves were later found to be 21 and 23-year-old cousins Ahmed and Wissam Remmo, along with their friend, Denis W.[11] Police do not expect to ever recover the coin, as the presence of gold dust leads them to believe the culprits had melted it down. Ahmed's brother Wayci was also charged, but later acquitted.
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