Founder director Werner Hofmann was given the promising and yet also problematic task of setting up a collection of modern art.

On April 26, 1979, the Palais Liechtenstein in Alsergrund was opened, and rented as a second exhibition building so as to gain more space for the museum.

An Austrian committee, set up by national minister Herta Firnberg, conducted negotiations with the Ludwigs on the selection of works.

On September 15, 2001, the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien was reopened in the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna's historical center.

The Republic of Austria agreed in turn to provide a budget that has enabled the Foundation to expand its collection of key works of international modernist and contemporary art – to this day.

The period to after World War Two is covered by holdings in classical modernism that were purchased by the museum's founding director, Werner Hofmann.