The King’s Golden Coach, a 19th century coronation gift that has become a center of controversy because of its depictions of the glories of Dutch colonialism and the Netherlands’ role in slavery in the ‘Golden Age’ is the focus of a new critical exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum.
Presented to Queen Wilhelmina in 1898 and used for many state occasions since, it has largely been off the road for renovation for the past five years. Given the criticism of the artwork, as well as some echoing 1898 complaints about extravagance, it’s possible it may never be used again, but become a permanent museum exhibit.
The panel that’s the center of the controversy
The exhibition at the museum, where the coach will be lifted by crane into a central courtyard, will examine not only the history of the coach itself and the door-to-door campaign to collect funds for it, but also extend the Netherlands’ current series of exhibits re-thinking the ‘Golden Age’ of the 17th and 18th centuries when the Netherlands grew rich by building an empire.
Incidentally, some of the 1898 criticism focused on why people were asked to be contribute to present a coach to a royal family that already owned 150 of them!
