A signed chicken’s egg by André Thomkins meets a silver spoon in which the artist Burkhart Beyerle has drilled a hole. Deprived of its function as a utensil for eating, the pair is of little use in everyday life – yet in the castle’s basement, it bears witness to the idiosyncratic and fascinating collection of the Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation. A collection full of surprises, curiosities, gems and classics of art history.

The exhibition guides visitors through various chapters of the collection’s history. On display are works from the period of passionate collecting by the brothers Hans (1929–2002) and Franz Joseph (1933–2020) van der Grinten, whose dedication laid the foundation for today’s museum. These include, for example, the Beuys portrait Mona Schwana, which Jörg Immendorff painted of his teacher in 1965 – and sold to him at the time for 200 DM. 

Also on display are acquisitions and donations from the museum’s more recent and very recent history, such as the ceramic Schlossgeist by Isabell Kamp, which recently arrived in Moyland; the video work White on White by David Roth; the poetic works of the Fluxus icon Takako Saito, who died in 2025; and the video work Art Academy Düsseldorf 1969 by Beuys’s student Emil Schult. 

Amidst famous names and surprising finds, a journey of discovery unfolds through the museum’s collection. From the bust of the French writer Victor Hugo by the sculptor Auguste Rodin to a life-size white porcelain mouse: let yourself be inspired by the diversity of the Moyländer Collection through this selection of around seventy works. It offers plenty of exciting highlights, extending far beyond its focus on the work of Joseph Beuys.

Curated by Judith Waldmann

Artists: Joseph Beuys, Fynn Bierik, Jörg Immendorf, Isabell Kamp, Imi Knoebel, Young-Jae Lee, László Moholy-Nagy, Katsuhito Nishikawa, Blinky Palermo, Auguste Rodin, Ulrike Rosenbach, David Roth, Bene Rox, Takako Saito, Emil Schult, Katharina Sieverding, Thomas Struth, Ben Vautier, Hildegard Weber, Christoph Wilmsen-Wiegmann and others.