Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, which holds the world’s largest trove of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, has announced plans to open an outpost in Eindhoven.
The museum, which showcases only a fraction of its more than 1m objects, said on Thursday it would construct the 3,500 sq metre centre over the next six to eight years.
Located in parkland by the River Dommel and close to Eindhoven’s central railway station, it will be built with support from the city council and from ASML, which makes semiconductor machinery in nearby Veldhoven.
Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum, said it was always seeking ways to share its collection, adding: “The Rijksmuseum in Eindhoven represents an important step in making the collection even more accessible in the south of the country.”
The Rijksmuseum, whose masterpieces include works by Vermeer and The Night Watch by Rembrandt, has become a big draw for Amsterdam and attracted nearly 2.5 million visitors last year. Overtourism has became a major concern for the city’s residents, however.
A two-and-a-half-hour drive south of Amsterdam, Eindhoven is the fifth largest city in the Netherlands by population. It is also a major technology hub and has a long-running association with the consumer electronics company Philips.
“The Rijksmuseum in Eindhoven will be a valuable addition to the cultural landscape of Brabant and beyond,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a former Dutch finance minister now serving as Eindhoven’s mayor. “This museum is set to become a place where everyone can enjoy a unique blend of history and creativity.”
The Rijksmuseum is the latest European museum to open a near or far-flung outpost. Paris’s Louvre opened an offshoot in Lens, a former mining town in northern France, in 2012 and a further branch in Abu Dhabi in 2017.
London’s V&A, which specialises in the applied arts, is scheduled to open a branch in the city’s former Olympic park in April. Art lovers can already visit its East Storehouse, which opened in the park in May.
