Adolf von Hildebrand is regarded as one of the most important sculptors in Germany around 1900. He created his works between the era of the Prince Regent in Munich and the enthusiasm for Italy of German Romans. He liberated the sculpture of the nineteenth century from superfluous decoration and thus became a pioneer of modernity. Works by the artist were already acquired for the collection of the Neue Pinakothek at an early point in time and were able to grow to become unique holdings of over 200 works as a result of the acquisition of his workshop estate. Besides completed works, the estate also includes models for ideal sculptures, reliefs, portraits, fountains, monuments, and tombs. In the catalog on the holdings, the works by Fabian Pius Huber are documented in detail for the first time and put in relation to the artist's oeuvre as a whole and his era.

In addition to his collection of contemporary painting, Ludwig I, who established the Neue Pinakothek, also purchased sculptures by important sculptors like Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. They were supplemented with many busts by sculptors such as Christian Daniel Rauch and Friedrich Tieck, which were originally intended for the Walhalla or the Ruhmeshalle (Pantheon). The king also had Johann Halbig create portraits of numerous poets and painters from whom he had already acquired paintings. All of these sculptures from the collection of Ludwig I have now been assessed from a scholarly perspective for the first time. The first volume of the three-volume catalog on the collection of all the sculpture holdings of the nineteenth century at the Neue Pinakothek presents the works in new color photographs and sheds light on the context of their creation.