Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is the first publicly accessible art depot in the world. The depot is located next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Museumpark in Rotterdam. The depot shows the result of 173 years of collecting.More than 151,000 works of art are stored together, arranged and structured in fourteen depot spaces with five climate zones. In addition to the objects, all activities involved in the management and maintenance of a collection can be seen.
In 1935 the museum moved to its current location, the Museum Park. Many decades and millions of visitors later, the building was exhausted and in need of major maintenance. The museum building itself will therefore be closed until 2026 and renovated by architecture firm Mecanoo. In the new museum, the art will be shown in exhibitions. The new museum building will not have a depot and storage function; instead, the storage and care of the art takes place in the adjacent, publicly accessible Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.
The rich and versatile collection of the museum originated from the passion of 1,700 private collectors, who have donated more than 50,000 art objects. The collection owes its name to Frans Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen, who donated many top pieces, from visual art, applied art to design. The museum’s collection of drawings is one of the most important in the world. Overall, Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection offers an overview of Dutch and European art, from the early Middle Ages to the 21st century. The collection includes Bruegel’s ‘Tower of Babel’, Rembrandt’s ‘Titus’ and Salvador Dalí’s ‘Lipsbank’.