The earliest work of art in the Christian Museum – one of its most famous pieces – is the statue of Mary Magdalene (?) carved about 1170 in Cologne. While this piece was purchased for the Museum by János Simor, the majority of the medieval Austrian and German works of art come from the collection of Arnold Ipolyi. We have no detailed information about their origin; only the ones purchased from the Lehman Collection of Vienna can be identified. The majority of the paintings and some reliefs were made in Bavaria and in the areas of Vienna and Salzburg. Most of the works have lost their original, medieval context. An exception is the small Austrian triptych showing the Death of the Virgin, which Ipolyi succeeded in acquiring intact.
I.K.