More about Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
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One of the Netherlands' oldest museums is about to get a much needed facelift.
That's because chances are pretty good if you went today that your favorite artwork might not be on display. There's over 140,000 pieces in the BVB's collection. But most of that is either on loan elsewhere or in storage, with only a few rotating pieces on display at a single time in the museum itself. Pro-tip: Call ahead to make sure that one favorite piece of yours is on the wall or risk disappointment.
Fear not, because this state of affairs will change for the better when the city's Public Art Depot is completed in 2018. Once up and running, the Public Art Depot will house the BVB collection and allow visitors to access almost all of the museum's collection. For you true blue #arthistorynerds out there that breathe fresco and bleed mixed media, the Public Art Depot will also allow visitors to view art works undergoing restoration and getting packed for transport across the world. The Public Art Depot will also seek to house private collections. The building itself will be something akin to a giant mirrored bowl crowned in an enormous garden terrace -- think salad bowl chic. My bet's on it being something between iconic and hilarious. In other words, we can't wait.
A renewal for the BVB's facilities is, in the mind of its own directors, long overdue. The story starts in 1849 when a lawyer named Boijmans left his art collection to the city of Rotterdam. Fast forward to 1935, and the Boijmans collection finally had a (then) brand new permanent home in Rotterdam that just barely survived Nazi bombing during World War II. The collection acquired the works belonging to the wealthy Van Beuningen family in 1958, adding some pizzazz and appending a fancy new name to the museum. Today, the plain ol' square museum is prone to flooding. The new building will change all that, keeping their Boschs and Brueghels safe from greedy mother nature's damp paws, as well as bringing all the art to the residents of and guests to the fine city of Rotterdam.
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Here is what Wikipedia says about Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (
Dutch pronunciation: [myˈzeːjʏm ˈbɔimɑns fɑn ˈbøːnɪŋə(n)]) is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located at the Museumpark in the district Rotterdam Centrum, close to the Kunsthal and the Natural History Museum.
The museum opened in 1849. Since its inception, the museum has become the home to over 151,000 artworks. In the collection, ranging from medieval to contemporary art, are works of Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Salvador Dalí and specific masterpieces such as the ‘Achilles series’ by Peter Paul Rubens and ‘A Cornfield, in the Background the Zuiderzee’ by Jacob van Ruisdael.
In 2013, the museum had 292,711 visitors and was the 14th most visited museum in the Netherlands. In 2018, the last full year before its long-term closure, there were 284,000 visitors.
The museum has been closed since mid-2019. In 2024, the council of Rotterdam agreed to ambitious renovation costing 359m Euros. The museum is finally scheduled to reopen in 2030.
Check out the full Wikipedia article about Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
