Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot

The Depot of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is a remarkable building in Rotterdam's Museumpark, and it is described as the first art storage facility in the world that the public can enter. Most museums show only a small part of their collections, with the rest kept out of sight in stores, and the Depot turns that idea inside out. Opened in November 2021 by King Willem-Alexander, it was designed by the Rotterdam architects MVRDV, and it houses the collection of the Boijmans museum, whose main building has been closed for a long renovation. Its curved, mirrored exterior has made it one of the city's best-known landmarks.

The building has an unmistakable shape. It is a large bowl, round and tapering at the bottom, covered in mirrored glass that reflects the sky, the park and the surrounding buildings, so that it seems to change colour with the weather. People often call it the Pot, because of its form. A roof garden with trees sits on top of the bowl and gives views over the city and the Maas river. From a distance the mirror surface makes the building look soft and almost weightless, while close up you can see how the panels are joined in a curved pattern.

Inside, the idea is to see how art is stored, cared for and studied. The storage rooms, held at carefully controlled temperature and humidity, are arranged in a ring around an atrium, and visitors walk through them on routes that lead up and down through the building. Works from the collection are packed closely on racks and in cabinets, with paintings, sculptures, design objects and prints from the Middle Ages to the present, and a large number of them can be seen. The museum's collection is rich: it holds early Netherlandish painting, work by Bosch, Rembrandt and the Dutch masters, and an important collection of modern art including Surrealists such as Dalí and Magritte. Restorers can sometimes be seen at work in glass-walled studios.

Access is by booking only. Visitors must reserve a time slot online in advance, and entry without a booking is not possible, so plan ahead and check the current arrangements. Rotterdam has plenty of other things to see in the same area, including the Kunsthal next door, the Markthal, the Cube Houses, the Euromast, the Erasmus Bridge, Delfshaven, the Sint-Laurenskerk and the lively Witte de Withstraat.

The Depot suits art lovers, architecture fans and curious visitors who like to see behind the scenes. Allow about two hours, and enjoy the roof garden if the weather is good.