In the location's words:

The Picture Gallery owns one of the world's most important collections of European painting from the 13th to the 18th century. Masterpieces from all periods of art history, including paintings by Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer van Delft are exhibited here. Especially the German and Italian painting of the 13th to 16th centuries as well as the Dutch painting of the 15th to 17th centuries can be admired and studied here excellently.

The paintings of the collection have been on display at the Kulturforum since 1998. The competition for the new building of the Picture Gallery, which was announced in 1986, was awarded to the architectural firm Hilmer & Sattler in the following year. In the style of Prussian austerity, the simple building, whose rooms are grouped around a light-filled lobby, rises above the ascending piazzetta.

In its restraint, the building's simple facade design is reminiscent of Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Altes Museum. The collection rooms are also classically proportioned. From the large lobby, visitors can always return to the exhibition rooms and resume their walk through the collection.