Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen

The Depot Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is the first fully publicly accessible depot in the world.

About the depot

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen was opened on 5 November 2021 by King Willem-Alexander. The first publicly accessible art depot, designed by architectural firm MVRDV, is unique in the world and is located next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Museumpark in Rotterdam. Nowhere in the world does such a working building exist, where, in addition to making the museum collection public, a glimpse behind the scenes of the museum work is given, which also houses private collections and corporate collections. The new depot is a Gesamtkunstwerk; the building and the design of the outdoor space make it a new Rotterdam icon.

The world's first accessible art depot

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen stores and cares for the entire art collection and offers visitors a look behind the scenes of the museum. The depot contains fourteen climate-controlled compartments with racks, shelves and cabinets for all the different works of art. There are depots for paintings, metals, organic and inorganic materials, black-and-white and colour photography. The humidity and temperature in the depot spaces are kept stable. From the walkway, the stairs and the lift you can view the works of art from all sorts of angles. You can also visit a depot space under the guidance of a guide.

More than 154,000 works of art

The collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is world famous. This collection has been growing since 1849 and currently consists of more than 154,000 works of art, of which approximately 89,000 prints and drawings. Of this collection, only about eight percent was shown in the monumental museum building. The lion's share was stored away, spread over many depots that are closed to the public. In Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen you see everything together, based on climatological requirements and not on art movement or time.