Bode Museum reopens

The imposing domed building, which straddles an island in [Berlin's] river Spree like the bow of a ship, was formally opened after a €152m (£102m) renovation which has restored the museum to its original, immaculate condition. It had been slowly decaying for 67 years.

Shattered by Allied bombs during the Second World War and neglected during East Berlin's communist era, the museum has not only been structurally revamped.

Hundreds of works that were removed during the war and stored on opposite sides of the city's infamous Wall during the Cold War were finally reunited under one roof. . .

Yesterday, the museum's complete collection, which includes lavishly ornate door-frames from Venetian palaces, 15th-century Dutch, Flemish and German masterpieces and Baroque and Byzantine sculptures and murals, was open to view for the first time since 1939.

I'm long overdue for a Berlin visit. Last time I was there the Museuminsel was still open and not yet under renovation; the Wall had been down for years, but the island museums were still stuck in postwar limbo.

Posted by David on October 18, 2006 7:59 AM