One of the Netherlands’ largest and most-varied art museums has now become its most accessible, with the opening of the distinctive Depot of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, attended by the Dutch King.
The facility, whose name is a play on its shape, which resembles a cauldron, or pot in Dutch, is storage for the museum’s extensive collections, but unlike other museums where only part of the collection can be seen, the Depot displays every one of the museum’s 150,000 holdings—just not in the usual spaced-out and arranged way.
The facility was created out of two needs: a place to store the collection, and a place to show it while the museum’s original building undergoes a nine-year reconstruction that began in 2019. The building has leaks, mold, asbestos and outdated mechanicals, and will not reopen until at least 2028 for curated exhibitions and regular galleries.
In the meantime, visitors can wander the Depot either with a guide or guided y an app, passing through five different climate zones created for the storage needs of different artworks and will also be able to observe conservators at work on the collection.
