The Bucerius Kunst Forum is an international exhibition centre in Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2002 through the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius foundation. It is named after Gerd Bucerius and his wife, and located directly beside the Hamburg Rathaus. The exhibition centre shows 3 - 4 exhibitions per year, in co-operation with other museums and collections. The exhibition centre participates in the Long Night of Museums.

The Bucerius Kunst Forum's mission is to showcase art of high quality in new contexts. The exhibitions focus on one topic, epoch or artist. They are intended to show artistic coherences, relationships between epochs and disciplines and to build bridges between ancient and modern art. The art pieces are to be viewed under a new aspect: an exhibition to the oeuvre of Henri Matisse gathered his portraits for the first time; the exhibition about Frida Kahlo devoted itself first to the connection between Mexican and European art. Thus also connoisseurs are to achieve new impressions.

The manageable size of the display area induces a precise focus of the topic and a limitation on 100 exhibits. At visitor-surveys three special experiences are named consistently: the visitors are delighted to be able to see the whole exhibition within one hour, without being exhausted; they have the satisfying feeling that their attention lasts for everything; and they were able to connect the experience of art with an increase in knowledge.

Despite the focus on a broad public demographic interested in the arts, the exhibitions of the Bucerius Kunst Forum are scientifically sound. Frequently they are preceded by a symposium, which assembles international specialists of one topic. During the symposium topics and theses of the exhibition are discussed. Until the summer of 2008 these symposiums took place at the Warburg Haus, Hamburg; since the winter of 2008 they have been hosted at the Bucerius Kunst Forum. The contributions are printed in widely illustrated exhibition catalogues, which have been published by Hirmer Verlag since 2005.

For most of the exhibitions the exhibits are assembled from various museums around the world. Thus "Terror and Desire. The Temptation of St. Anthony from Hieronymus Bosch to Max Ernst" showed exhibits from more than 40 lenders from 10 different states, while "High Society. American Portraits of the Gilded Age" gathered exhibits from 32 lenders, among which were exhibits from 29 different museums of the United States. Occasionally exhibitions show thematic presentations, which are chosen from the collection of one institution, such as the Mannerism exhibition from the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum in Budapest or the exhibition "New World. Creating an American Art" with pieces from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford (Connecticut).

So far the lenders have included, among others:

It belongs to the concepts of the house to design the display area for every new exhibition in fundamentally new colours and architecture to convey a new spatial experience every time.

The thematic range of the exhibitions is broadly defined and reaches from ancient times to the present age. From the field of archaeology there were exhibitions about the Etruscans, Cleopatra and "Painting for Eternity. The Tombs of Paestum". Extra-European cultures were discussed during "Art of the Silk Road. The Allure of Buddha", old masters through an exhibition about Lucas Cranach the Elder as well as "Greco, Velázquez, Goya. Spanish Paintings from German Collections", eras and periods of time through "Descent into the World. The Art of Mannerism in Europe" and "Between Heaven and Hell. Medieval Art".