The Schunck collection of Modern and Contemporary Art is not just a collection of paintings and other works of art, it is also a collection of histories: the history of exhibitions, acquisitions, artists and collectors, municipal organisations and buildings, motives and inspiration, styles and personalities. The heart of this book reveals the collection by means of a representative selection of the works that have been acquired. Accompanying the images are a number of art-historical, biographical, literary and journalistic essays which relate the history of Heerlen's collection of art, from its very inception directly after the Second World War right up to the present.