In Rotterdam opens the Museum Depot, the largest museum-depot in the world
In the six floors of the building will be exhibited works from the deposits of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum.
On November 6 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the spectacular Museum Depot will open, the world’s first museum depot to offer the public access to the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum‘s entire art collection. On July 29, exactly one hundred days before the opening, the first tickets will be made available for purchase online.
Located in the Museumpark, a vast green area where the city’s five main museums are located, the building in which it will be housed is a masterpiece of modern architecture: designed by Dutch studio MVRDV, it resembles the prow of a ship and stands out in the city skyline with its facade completely covered in mirrors.
A completely unconventional museum: the Depot is, to all intents and purposes, a repository of works where visitors can witness firsthand all the behind-the-scenes activities of a museum and thus become witnesses to all that fundamental part of activities to which, generally, only insiders have access.
The project is also an example of sustainability: thanks to innovative and sustainable technologies and materials, trees suitable for high altitudes planted in the rooftop garden, energy efficiency that uses the accumulation of heat and cold and the ability to collect the so-called gray water, the structure, neutral in terms of CO2 emissions, is placed in the band of excellence according to the standards of the BREAAM assessment to classify and certify the sustainability of buildings.
In addition to the museum part, the Depot will also have a commercial part: an area of the Museum, in fact, can be rented by private collectors, Corporate Art Collections, other museums. There will also be a restaurant, hosted in the roof garden, a Depot store, a cinema, a coffee corner and events and guided tours will be organized.
“The Depot will become a global icon for the arts in Rotterdam” – says Sjarel Ex, Director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – “It will highlight the museum’s role as a place ‘that makes’ as well as a place ‘that has’. Visitors will be able to gain new insights into our shared culture and heritage (and how this is cared for and maintained) through an unmediated artistic experience: for the first time – here in Rotterdam – our entire collection will be visible to everyone. ”
After all, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum is one of the best known and richest of all the Netherlands: here are preserved masterpieces of the greatest masters of Western art, from the High Middle Ages through Manet, Monet and Magritte to contemporary authors such as David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, as well as vast and important collections of design and decorative arts.
Photo credits: Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. Photo Ossip van Duivenbode
