Mr. Hollein's efforts have helped to transform Frankfurt into a city of world-class culture.
Felix Semmelroth, director of cultural affairs in Frankfurt, describes Mr. Hollein as persistent and strong-willed.
In university, Mr. Hollein says he rebelled by studying business, when his family expected him to pursue the arts.
Consequently, Mr. Hollein isn't shy about fund-raising and he believes every contribution counts.
Mr. Hollein's creativity shows in his conceptualization of exhibitions and their accompanying programs of events, but also in his marketing approach.
Mr. Hollein's father designed Frankfurt's Museum of Modern Art, which is known to locals as the "pie piece" for its tall, triangular shape.
Mr. Hollein's aggressive techniques may have been partly inspired by his work from 1995 to 2000 at the Guggenheim in New York before moving to Frankfurt.
For a recent exhibition on Max Beckmann, Mr. Hollein curated a show focused narrowly on the work the German artist did in the U.S. shortly before his death.
Over lunch at the Austrian restaurant Lohninger on Frankfurt's museum row, Mr. Hollein says museums should serve as a public space for the education, enjoyment and social participation of the people.
Raised in Vienna, Mr. Hollein was immersed in the world of art from childhood, when personalities such as Joseph Beuys and Frank Gehry would visit for dinner at the invitation of his mother, a fashion designer, and his father, an architect.
While his friends from the Vienna University of Economics and Business got set up in corporate apartments, Mr. Hollein turned down an offer from McKinsey, rented a place in Hell's Kitchen and set out to learn all he could about curating and marketing art.
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