With the Mayor Walter Wallmann (CDU) and the Head of the Cultural department Hilmar Hoffmann (SPD) Iden found political advocates for his project.

[12] The core of the museum is the legacy of German collector Karl Ströher with 87 works of Pop art and Minimalism.

[13] The manufacturer Ströher had originally bequeathed to his native city of Darmstadt on condition that a museum be built to house them.

When funds for the project were not approved, Ströher's heirs sold the choice ensemble to Frankfurt and donated the painting "Yellow and Green Brushstrokes" by Roy Lichtenstein to the museum as a gift.

[14] Major artists since the 1950s from the Ströher Collection displayed,[9] including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Walter de Maria, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselman and George Segal, with his Jazz Combo.

[18][19] In 2006 the Museum für Moderne Kunst, along with the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, acquired the private collection of Cologne art dealer Rolf Ricke, comprising works by Richard Artschwager, Bill Bollinger, Donald Judd, Gary Kuehn, und Steven Parrino.