Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne, Art research library in Altstadt-Nord, Germany.
The Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne is a research facility holding over 550,000 volumes covering modern art, architecture, photography, and design. Its collections are distributed across two reading halls in central Cologne.
The facility was established in 1957 by merging collections from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Kunstgewerbemuseum. This combination created a major documentation center for art research in Europe.
The collection documents art developments through exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings, and posters that reflect regional art history since medieval times. Visitors encounter traces of local artistic movements within the archived materials.
The reading halls are accessible Monday through Friday, with extended evening hours until 21:00 on most weekdays. Twice monthly, Saturday openings are offered for interested visitors.
The institution participates in KuBi, a platform linking over 750,000 titles from multiple Cologne institutions. Researchers can access this shared database for comprehensive research.
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