Kunstmuseum Basel

The museum currently operates across three venues. The Hauptbau on St. Alban-Graben, inaugurated in 1936, was designed by architects Rudolf Christ and Paul Bonatz in a style of conservative modernism. It was originally conceived solely for the presentation of the museum's collections. In 2016, a new building (Neubau) designed by the local firm Christ & Gantenbein opened across the street, connected by an underground passage. This extension, funded significantly by the Laurenz Foundation and Dr. h.c. Maja Oeri, adds 2,750 square meters of galleries with skylighted spaces for special exhibitions. The third venue, Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart, located on St. Alban-Rheinweg, was established in 1980 as one of the first museums dedicated to contemporary art in the world.

The museum possesses the largest collection of works by Hans Holbein the Younger in the world, a core part of the original Amerbach Cabinet. The holdings also include a substantial body of work by Arnold Böcklin, which is unparalleled as a representative selection from the artist's oeuvre. In 2006, the Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld donated his Rembrandt collection, comprising more than 100 etchings. The collection spans from the late Middle Ages to the present, with significant holdings in international modernism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The museum also holds major works by fifteenth- through seventeenth-century artists from the Upper Rhine region, acquired through the merger with the Museum Faesch in 1823.

The Kunstmuseum Basel is historically significant as the site of the world's first public art collection, setting a precedent for the democratization of art access. Its continuity is attributed to Basel's tradition of vigorous philanthropic commitment and a strong affinity for culture and scholarship. The museum has played a pivotal role in art history, notably in 1939 when it hosted a large exhibition of German-Jewish artists whose works were considered 'degenerate' by the Nazi regime, preserving these works during a time of persecution. The institution continues to be a major cultural hub, recording 265,000 visitors in 2019, and remains a center for contemporary discourse through its dedicated contemporary art venue and regular lectures.