Further examples of Renaissance art include important pieces by such master artists as Konrad Witz, Hans Baldung (called Grien), Martin Schongauer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Matthias Grünewald.

Expressionism is represented by such figures as Edvard Munch, Franz Marc, Oskar Kokoschka, Bernard Buffet and Emil Nolde.

Further highlights are the unique compilations of works from Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti and Marc Chagall.

In the realm of more recent and contemporary art, the collection maintains substantial bodies of work by Swiss, German, Italian, and American artists, including Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Georg Baselitz, A.R.

Penck, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Jonathan Borofsky, Roni Horn, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Enzo Cucchi, Martin Disler, Leiko Ikemura, Markus Raetz, Rosemarie Trockel and Robert Gober.

In 1975, the Dia Art Foundation installed Untitled (In memory of Urs Graf) by Dan Flavin in the museum's front courtyard and arcade gallery.

In 1939 a large body of work by German-Jewish artists, whose paintings were considered to be degenerate art by the Nazi regime in Germany, were acquired for the Kunstmuseum under the director George Schmidt.

With international star competitors, such as five Pritzker Prize laureates (Peter Zumthor, Zaha Hadid, Rafael Moneo, Tadao Ando and Jean Nouvel) — all pitching, eventually a young local firm, Christ & Gantenbein, won the project.

[17][24] In 2008, Basel rejected a restitution request for paintings by Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse from the heirs of Curt Glaser, saying "`The Kunstmuseum paid prices typical for the time and our decision was that the Washington principles do not apply in this case.

[27] In 2012 the museum reached an agreement with the heirs of the painter Kazimir Malevich whose “Landscape with Red Houses” which purchased from Marlborough Fine Art Ltd Gallery in London in 1964.

[29][30] The museum rejected a request made in 2022 to return a 1909 painting by Henri Rousseau The muse inspiring the poet which had been owned by Lotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a Jewish collector who was fleeing the Nazis[31] In 2019, the Kunstmuseum had 265,000 visitors.