The museums of the “Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz” (Prussian Cultural Foundation), which are sponsored by the national government and the federal states, are situated in four locations: the museum island in Mitte, the “Kulturforum” in Tiergarten and the museum complexes in Charlottenburg and Dahlem.

On the museum island is the Pergamonmuseum with its archeological collections: the Classical Antiquities, the West Asian Antiquities and the Museum of Islamic Art. After the completion of the extensive renovation work on the Old National Gallery (19th century paintings) and the Bode Museum (Museum of Late Antiquity and Byzantine Art, Sculpture Collection and Coin Cabinet) and the reconstruction of the New Museum which will house the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, the museum island will again be a unique museum complex.

The Kulturforum in Tiergarten includes not only the Philharmonie, the Chamber Music Hall and the State Library – it also comprises the Picture Gallery, the Art Library, the Arts and Crafts Museum, the Copper Engravings Cabinet and the New National Gallery. The new Picture Gallery, completed in 1998, was the last of the new museum building projects for European art in the Kulturforum.

Dahlem in the south-west of Berlin is the home of the Museum of Indian Art, the Museum of East Asian Art, the Museum of Ethnology and the Museum of Folklore.

The museums in Charlottenburg are grouped around Charlottenburg Palace. The Langhans building of the Palace houses the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. The Romanticism Gallery is in the Knobelsdoff wing which is to be integrated into the 19th century paintings collection of the Old National Gallery in the next few years. Opposite them, in the western Stüler building, is the Berggruen Collection: “Picasso and his Time“. The museum complex is crowned by the palace itself, a building which dates from the first half of the 18th century. After the demolition of the Berlin city palace, it is the only baroque complex in Berlin, and it mainly contains historical rooms of the kings of Prussia.