Liechtenstein in 2004

Liechtenstein in 2004

Area: 160 sq km (62 sq mi) Population (2004 est.): 34,500 Capital: Vaduz Chief of state: Prince Hans Adam II Head of government: Otmar Hasler

On Aug. 15, 2004, Prince Hans Adam II, age 59, formally transferred day-to-day governing power in Liechtenstein to his 36-year-old son, Crown Prince Alois, and invited the entire country to the garden-party celebration. Prince Hans Adam retained overall authority over the country, which his family had ruled for almost 300 years.

The reopening of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna on March 28 was cause for celebration. The 1,600 paintings and many Italian bronzes and decorative objects constituted one of the largest and most valuable private collections in the world, assembled over four centuries by the Liechtenstein princely family, which fully financed the €23 million (about $27.8 million) renovations of the museum’s Baroque Garden Palace. Foremost in the Princely Collections were important paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, including The Assumption of the Virgin, and works by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Raphael, and Rembrandt. The Austrian museum had been closed since 1938 after the Nazis had claimed the collection. Then museum director Gustav Wilhelm had switched labels on the most precious works and, renting trucks and buses from Switzerland, had transported the art under cover of darkness to the royal palace in Vaduz, where it remained safe. Although some of the works had been exhibited in Vaduz, most of the collection had been closed to public view for 66 years.

Anne Roby