Art de vivre Above the Rooftops of Vienna

22.06.2026

Leopold Museum Hosted Fundraising Dinner

Marking the successful exhibition Gustave Courbet. Realist and Rebel, the Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Moritz Stipsicz, the museum’s Managing Director, invited guests to a soirée dedicated to the French Art de vivre. All the proceeds from the event will go towards the museum’s causes, including the conservation of works from the collection and various art education projects.

“If you come to Vienna, as I hope, that is where we will laugh wholeheartedly, and we will have more fun than you have ever had before”, Gustave Courbet wrote in a letter to his friend Jules-Antoine Castagnary in 1873. Much in keeping with this message, some 320 invited guests from the worlds of business and culture, politics and media spent an atmospheric summer’s evening on the rooftop of the Leopold Museum. Chansons performed by the British-French singer Daisy Hearts and accordionist Zina Bloch provided the musical backdrop.

The Guests

The invitations extended by the numerous table hosts were accepted by more than 320 personalities from business and culture, among them the French ambassador Matthieu Peyraud, Alexander Schallenberg (former Federal Chancellor of Austria), the Leopold Museum’s board members Danielle Spera and Saskia Leopold, Walter Oblin (CEO Post AG), Georg Pölzl, head of the Leopold Museum’s Circle of Patrons (COP), Peter Bosek (CEO Erste Bank), Christiane Wenckheim (chair of the supervisory board of Ottakringer), Harald Friedrich (deputy chairman of LLB), Siegfried Menz (deputy chair of the supervisory board of Ottakringer), Günther Ofner (managing board director of Vienna’s airport Flughafen Wien AG), manager Herbert Koch (former CEO of kika/Leiner) and Friederike Koch, Horst Mathä (Lazard Asset Management, Country Head Austria), Ilse and Martin Bartenstein (former Federal Minister, CEO G.L. Pharma), attorney Clemens Philipp Schindler (Schindler Attorneys), Gerhard Ströck (CEO Ströck), Angela Baillou (CEO Christie’s Österreich), artists Martha Jungwirth, Elisa Alberti, Soli Kiani, Charlotte Klobassa, Eva Schlegel, Sebastian Koch, Constantin Luser, Erwin Wurm and Élise Mougin-Wurm, Peter Kogler and Hubert Scheibl, Stefan Ottrubay (chairman Esterházy Foundations), Helmut Schoba (CEO News, VGN), Wolfgang Bauer (bel etage), Michaela Kamler (CEO Michara) and Franz-Hesso zu Leiningen, art historian Agnes Husslein-Arco and Peter Husslein, architects Hermann Eisenköck and Carl Pruscha, chief physician Herbert Frank (university hospital Tulln-Klosterneuburg), collectors Ernst Ploil (CEO im Kinsky), Margot Fuchs and Roman Fuchs, Nikolaus Leopold (Leopold Fine Arts), as well as Christine Conrad-Eybesfeld and Bertran Conrad-Eybesfeld (director and owner of estate Eybesfeld), Andrea Unterberger (AKRIS Austria), Eva and Michael Moosbrugger (CEO winery Schloss Gobelsburg), Nadja Bernhard, Martin Engelberg, jeweler Marie Skrein, and many others.

“Adieu, Monsieur Courbet!”

The exhibition Gustave Courbet. Realist and Rebel is on display until Sunday, 21 June.

Extended opening times from Thursday, 18 June to Sunday 21 June, 10 am to 9 pm.

Link to the APA photo gallery (© Leopold Museum, Wien/APA-Fotoservice/Rudolph):

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