From Kunstkammer to modern museums In 1825 the Royal Kunstkammer was broken up, and the collections were distributed among the newly established specialist museums. In this way, the Renaissance notion of the all-embracing collection was abandoned in favour of an up-to-date view of the world, spread out over many different branches of knowledge. The dispersal of the Kunstkammer The Royal Kunstkammer existed officially until 1825, at which time the majority of the pieces were distributed among the newly established specialist museums for cultural history, art history, and natural history. Nowadays they constitute the nucleus of several of the major Danish museums, including the National Museum, Rosenborg Castle, the National Gallery, The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle and the Zoological Museum. See diagram depicting the dispersal of the Kunstkammer. Many of the major Danish museums have preserved a good number of objects and specimens from their early days. All of these can trace their history back to the Kunstkammer of the Danish Absolutist monarchs. They are not just material relics of the museums' establishment - they are also living testimony of the concepts behind the Kunstkammer collection, and of the period when it was created as a centre of knowledge. They are tangible expressions of the all-embracing view of the world that was so typical during the Renaissance. The road leading to an up-to-date view of the world In the 1700s the fundamentally obsessive Renaissance conception of the cross-disciplinary multiplicity of the kunstkammers was becoming unfashionable. Attention was drifting away from the 'old-fashioned' universal collections, such as the Kunstkammer, and turning towards scientifically systematic forms of collecting. No longer could or should the world be contemplated in its entirety, and by 1800 time had run out for the 'multi-museum'. The old collections were no longer able to satisfy the requirements of the polite society as far as the study and presentation of the new contemporary perception of nature was concerned - not to mention the growing interest in, for example, archaeology and cultural history. This led to a demand for new, specialist museums, so that the museums of the 19th century came to comply with the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment. The collections were to be accessible to the public and provide for the population's enlightenment and education. The new middle-class society regarded the museums as seats of learning for developing cultural awareness. Modern scholarly notions, laying emphasis on the importance of specialized collections, also made it clear that a revised systematic registration and a scholarly catalogue of the old royal collection was necessary.