Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen pioneers in collection management

We very much enjoyed sharing our space with staff from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen while they worked from offices in our headquarters, but while we miss seeing them in the hallways, we’re sure they’re very happy to have finally moved into their wonderful ‘new home’!

After four and a half years of construction work, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opened to the public on Saturday 6th November 2021 and the new depot is truly one-of-a-kind in the museum sector.

Museums worldwide rarely display more than ten percent of their collection – the remaining percentage is safely stored and protected. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen breaks this tradition of ‘hiding’ works of art in storage by being the world’s first storage facility that is accessible to the public. Having found a way to make their entire art collection visible, Boijmans is a pioneer in the changing vision of collection management.

The architecture of the building is impressive, to say the least. One of the building’s most striking features is the facade – made with 1,664 reflective glass panels, the playful result is a building that mirrors its surroundings; the beautiful park which it inhabits and the skyline of Rotterdam.

The interior is nothing less than exquisite. The architects have created an open space with the use of glass and light materials and when walking through the hallways, it feels like being surrounded by floating artworks. The six floors of the depot now house, in carefully controlled climate zones, a total of 151.000 objects of art for the entire world to see.

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