[1] The institute is supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and Art, and is supervised by an international board of trustees.

[1] It organizes lectures and symposia and edits various art history publications, for instance, the Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte[2] and the Kunstchronik,[3] an art journal featuring articles on museological matters, important exhibitions and art-historical conferences, and the preservation of monuments and historic buildings.

[1] The institute also maintains one of the world's most comprehensive art libraries,[4] with more than 650,000 volumes, 1,200 current periodicals and over 75,000 auction sales catalogues,[5] and an extensive collection of photographs of artworks.

[6] After its foundation in 1946, the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte started its activities in 1947 under its first director Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich.

The Munich Central Collecting Point had been installed in this building in June 1945 by the American military government.