Through consolidation, the holdings have become one of the most important art history archives in Germany.
[1] The Zentralarchiv's mission is to handle these materials according to archive-specific principles, to ensure long-term preservation and to make them accessible.
In response to increased demand for information and documentation about the history of the museums' collections, a location on Museum Island is open to the public, offering holdings of the archive for researchers as well as answering queries.
In 1965 another archive was established at the Alte Nationalgalerie as a documentation facility in the field of art history.
Following German reunification, the archives became part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin under the auspices of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.