Some smart alec has worked out you’d have to be at least 75 years old to have ever seen the collection’s riches in full entirety. Indeed, this is the first time since World War II that the Bode Museum has assembled all its holdings of sculptures and Byzantine treasures under one roof again. Strictly speaking, “again” is perhaps somewhat misleading. The museum never in fact existed in the form in which it is now being unveiled in the middle of the Spree river. And presumably it will take a while for the people of Berlin to fully grasp what has recently opened on the northern edge of the “Museumsinsel” (Museum Island) – a unique art collection that has no equivalent elsewhere in the world.

It took eight years for the dilapidated buildings behind the Stadthausbrücke to be restored into a museum. The original builders didn’t need any longer than that either, although between 1897 and 1904 they had to deal with all manner of rigours. Such as with the widespread public perception that the new edifice was more like a castle – an association which the building’s “spiritual father” Wilhelm Bode never disputed. Named after Kaiser Friedrich III, who had died in 1888, his “Kaiser Friedrich Museum” was ceremonially inaugurated in 18 October 1904 on the anniversary of the Kaiser’s birthday.

Some one hundred years later the building is gleaming in new and old splendour. 64 rooms invite the visitor to take a journey of discovery through the history of western culture. Characteristic for the new setting is the discreet furnishing of the exhibition rooms. With only a few paintings adorning the walls, the broad space belongs to the sculptures. The works are mounted at eye-level, stand on low pedestals or daises, bringing the visitor within touching distance of the exhibits. The grain of the wood, the traces of chiselling on the marble, the rear of a triptych – all of this is open for inspection in the Bode Museum. The effect can be quite moving, allowing us to gaze with almost childlike innocence at distant worlds and eras.

The curators have thread a path from late antiquity through Byzantium up to the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque eras in Europe, recounting history with sculpted figures. The works are “ordered” according to epoch and country. Yet it is still difficult to find one’s way around this triangular building because it does not offer the orthodox gallery circuit. But presumably that is the idea: you just wander from one room to the next and, again and again, let yourself be surprised.

Further information in English and German: www.smb.museum