Vienna · Maria-Theresien-Platz
Kunsthistorisches Museum: tickets, hours and highlights
The imperial art museum of Vienna, opened in 1891, with Bruegel, Vermeer, the Kunstkammer and a grand staircase. Official prices, time slots, hours and practical tips.
Today
Opening hours for every month are on the Opening hours page.
Checked against the official website on 23 October 2026 · Official source
In short
- The KHM sells original tickets on shop.khm.at and at its own cash desk: 22 € online and 24 € at the museum, 19 € and 20 € reduced, free under 19, as of 23 October 2026. The museum warns that unofficial websites may sell tickets that are not accepted.
- It is open from 10:00 to 18:00 and until 21:00 on Thursdays, with the last entry 30 minutes before closing. Mondays are the catch: open every day until 4 January 2027, then closed on Mondays with a few exceptions, as published in the official shop.
- Since 8 September 2026 everyone needs a reserved time slot. The ticket is valid for one entry on the day and at the time you choose, and the length of the visit is not limited.
- The Picture Gallery is on the first floor, with Bruegel, Vermeer (room XII) and Velázquez. The Kunstkammer, with Cellini's Saliera, is on the raised ground floor. Coats and bags go to the free cloakroom: there is no luggage storage.
- Our partner Tiqets sells the adult ticket at 22 €, the same as the official online price, with an instant mobile ticket and cancellation under the terms on its page, according to Tiqets. The time slot applies to everyone, whoever sells the ticket. The official ticket cannot be exchanged or refunded.
The Picture Gallery: Bruegel, Vermeer, Velázquez, Raphael
The Picture Gallery is on the first floor and, according to the museum, holds more than 770 works. The museum counts twelve paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, among them The Tower of Babel (1563), Hunters in the Snow (1565) and the Peasant Wedding, which hangs in room X. The official site does not give the rooms of the first two, so ask a member of staff or follow the signs.
Vermeer's The Art of Painting (about 1666 to 1668) is in room XII, near Rembrandt's small self-portrait and the Ruisdael landscapes. Velázquez is shown with his portraits of the Infantas, such as Infanta Margarita in a blue dress (1659, room 10). The gallery also has Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow, Caravaggio, Titian, Dürer, Holbein and Rubens. Rooms can close or change, and four rooms (24, VIII, 14 and IX) are currently shut with no reopening date.
The grand staircase and Canova's Theseus
The entrance, the staircase and the Cupola Hall form a single stage built to celebrate the imperial patron, as the museum describes it. On the landing stands Antonio Canova's Theseus Killing the Centaur, made for the Theseus Temple in the Volksgarten and in the museum since 1890, according to the official site.
The Vienna Tourist Board says the staircase carries paintings by Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt, Franz Matsch and Hans Makart, and Baedeker's 1911 handbook agrees, naming Matsch and the brothers Klimt for the spandrels and Makart for the lunettes. The museum pages we read do not mention Klimt on the staircase.
The Kunstkammer and Cellini's Saliera
The Kunstkammer, on the raised ground floor, has about 2,200 objects in 20 themed spaces: goldsmith work, automata, clocks and scientific instruments from the Habsburg collections. Its best-known piece is the Saliera, the gold salt cellar Benvenuto Cellini made in 1539 to 1543 for Francis I of France.
The Saliera was stolen in May 2003 and found in January 2006 in a box buried in woodland near Zwettl, according to Wikipedia. The room where it stands now is not stated by the official site, so ask at the information desk.
Egypt, Greece and Rome, and the Coin Cabinet
The raised ground floor also has the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection, with more than 17,000 objects from 4500 BC to the Christian era: stone sarcophagi, painted coffins, mummies and an original cult chapel from the tomb of an official at Giza. Among the antiquities, the museum lists the Amazon Sarcophagus, the Theseus mosaic, the Gemma Augustea and the Nagyszentmiklós treasure.
The Coin Cabinet holds about 600,000 objects and the museum counts it among the five largest coin collections in the world. We could not confirm on which floor it is today: Baedeker's 1911 handbook puts it on the second floor.
The Cupola Hall café and Thursday evenings
The Café-Restaurant is in the Cupola Hall, under the dome. It is open while the museum is open, from 10:00 to 17:30 (until 20:30 on Thursdays), with the kitchen open from 11:00 to 16:30. You need a valid museum ticket to go in, and you can reserve a table online.
On Thursday evenings the museum stays open until 21:00. The Dinner in the Museum is held every Thursday in the Cupola Hall and must be booked: the Dinner at the window option, with counter seating only, costs 45 € a person for three courses, and the Classic and Deluxe menus include a 30-minute guided tour in German.
What is not in this building
The Naturhistorisches Museum, the twin building across Maria-Theresien-Platz, is a separate museum with its own ticket. The KHM-Museumsverband also runs the Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg (closed on Tuesdays), the Neue Burg and the free Theseus Temple in the Volksgarten, which are separate visits.
The combined ticket Treasures of the Habsburgs covers the KHM and the Imperial Treasury, and the Masterticket covers the KHM and the Leopold Museum: see the prices below.
