A Rotterdam museum is giving art lovers the unique chance to see all of its 151,000 artworks, by launching a new open warehouse at a cost of £50 million.
Due to spacing limits its usual practice for most museums to only display five to 15 per cent of its collections, while the rest will remain in storage for future use.
However, Boijmans Van Beuningen is keen to notch up the experience by launching the Depot. The new facility will offer public access to all of Boijman’s world renowned exhibits for the first time in a 16,000 square metre space.
The Depot will be next to the original 1935 Boijman’s Museum Boijmans
Visitors will be able to explore the Depot with or without a guide and will get first-hand experience of behind the scenes action of an art museum – including the meticulous conservation, restoration, and research processes.
Its expected the new Depot which will house Van Gogh, Warhol and Bosch artworks will attract 90,000 visitors a year.
Construction for Boijmans Depot was completed last week and as expected, it is a work of art itself. The 40-metre-high building was designed by Dutch architect Winy Maas, which includes an ultra-modern mirror effect exterior and a roof garden with 75 trees.
Curators of the project will now carefully transfer all 151,000 exhibits into their new home at the Depot before opening.
Boijmans
Sjarel Ex, Director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen said: “The Depot will provide a world icon for the arts in Rotterdam. It will highlight the role of the museum as a place that does in addition to being a place that has.
“Visitors will gain new insights into our shared culture and heritage and how it is cared for and maintained through an unmediated experience of art: for the first time – here in Rotterdam – the whole of our collection will be visible to everybody.”
The Depot is next door to Boijmans Van Beuningen at Rotterdam’s Museum Park with a scheduled launch of Autumn 2021.
Elsewhere, a £46 million arts and culture museum has opened in Plymouth.
