The first volume of the journal was published by the Avalun-Verlag Hellerau-Dresden in 1925 and was edited by Carl Hentze (1883–1975) and Alfred Salmony (1890–1958).

After Hadl had died in 1944,[7] Miss Flesch kept the journal afloat on her own until 1946, when Alfred Salmony became editor-in-chief.

1, 1957) to commemorate the founding donor of the Museum Rietberg, Eduard von der Heydt.

Artibus Asiae started to publish monographs on selected topics in 1937 to allow more lengthy contributions to the field.

[11] They are conceived as a supplemental series to the journal and present a broad range of lavishly illustrated studies.

Early monographs were on topics only remotely related to the arts, such as publications on the Tibetan grammar books Sum cu pa and Rtags kyi ‘ajug[12] or on Chinese literature.