The Rijksmuseum is currently being renovated, restored and renewed.
The main building is under renovation and will reopen in 2013. Until then, the crème de la crème from the Golden Age – including paintings by Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer – will be on display in the Philips Wing on Museumplein, in an exhibition entitled The Masterpieces, alongside the famous doll’s houses, the Van Vianen brothers’ silver and the Delftware pottery. The Rijksmuseum also has a division at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport. Other museums in the Netherlands and abroad also display temporary exhibitions from the Rijksmuseum’s excellent collection.
The new Rijksmuseum will display around 7,500 works of art and historical objects, which is almost the same amount as before the renovations.
The walking distance through the 80 galleries at the museum, taking in the exhibition areas is a total of around 1.5 km.
The entire Rijksmuseum collection, including drawings, prints and photos, consists of around 900,000 items. Before the renovations, around 1,200,000 people visited the Rijksmuseum annually.
The museum will have the capacity to welcome between 1.5 – 2.0 million visitors each year.
The cost of the combined rebuilding, renovation and renewal of the Rijksmuseum will amount to € 366 million. The Rijksmuseum will cover € 45 million of the costs, made possible in part by generous support from Founder Philips and sponsors the ‘BankGiro Loterij’ and ING.
Image: Interior Rijksmuseum.
www.rijksmuseum.nl