This book is dedicated to legendary art collector Franz Hauer. The son of a mailman from Lower Austria, he became one of the key figures of his time.

Franz Hauer started out penniless, but became an exemplary self-made man. After becoming wealthy by running the legendary Griechenbeisl restaurant in Vienna, he began acquiring art and built an art collection with important groups of works by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.

Hauer passed away in 1914, and in the years after his death, almost the entire collection was sold. Today, its treasures are held by numerous important museums and private collections in Europe and the US. This book aims to portray the fascinating personality of Franz Hauer as the first self-made man among the Art Collectors in a new light – and to reconstruct his legendary art collection.