In 1822, Schinkel designed the plans for the Altes Museum to house the royal Antikensammlung, the arrangement of the collection was overseen by Wilhelm von Humboldt.

Then, six months later, Peter-Klaus Schuster took over and set in motion a far more ambitious program intended to turn Museum Island into a Louvre on the Spree.

[5] The federal government pledged $20 million a year through 2010 for projects to enhance Berlin's prestige and UNESCO declared the island a World Heritage Site.

The Neues Museum presented archaeological objects as well as Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures, including the renowned bust of Queen Nefertiti.

[5] Once this process is completed, perhaps by 2020, the Gemäldegalerie's painting collection will be transferred to the Bode, and a new annex, and Museum Island will present all art from the ancient civilizations to 1900.

[7] The James Simon Gallery, a $157 million visitors' center designed by the British architect David Chipperfield, completed construction in 2019 and is located beside the Neues Museum.

In a way, this archaeological promenade can be regarded as the sixth museum in the Island, because it is devised not only as a connecting corridor but also as a strung-out exhibition room for interdisciplinary presentations.

The Archaeological Promenade may be characterized as a cross-total of the collections that are shown separately (in accordance with cultural regions, epochs, and art genres) in the individual museums of the Island.