The city of Cologne was taken aback when an enormous collection of Medieval art came into its possession after Ferdinand Franz Wallraf’s passing in 1824. It wasn’t until 30 years later, in 1854, that the creation of a museum came to fruition after Johann Heinrich Richartz donated 100,000 thalers (the currency at the time). The museum, honoring both figures, the collector and the benefactor, created its brand with their names and opened in 1861 with its popularity progressively spiking. Regrettably, the building was destroyed in the night bombings of 1943. Over the next decades, the Wallraf -Richartz museum changed location several times, before it found its final place in 2011 in the same neighborhood as the great painter Stefan Lochner’s old residence.