‘During the transit years, art lovers can see artworks from the museum’s extensive collection at neighbouring institutions, in school classes and abroad. With Boijmans Abroad, ever-changing selections of masterpieces from Rotterdam’s collection can be seen in museums all around the world.’
Director Sjarel Ex.

Boijmans Abroad
‘Boijmans Abroad’ is one of the spearheads to keep the collection visible during the museum’s large-scale renovation and modernisation programme. ‘Boijmans Abroad’ ensures that people in different continents can acquaint themselves with the city of Rotterdam’s art collection.
From 12 June 2021, 180 works by more than forty Surrealists artists from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will be shown on the other side of the world, in the Te Papa Tongarewa museum in Wellington. The exhibition The exhibition ‘Surreal Art. Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’ marks the start of a world tour. This is the first exhibition to be shown as part of the Transit program ‘Boijmans Abroad’.
Where in the world is Boijmans’ collection on display?
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen loans around 400 works of art to international museums every year. This exchange increases the museum’s reputation abroad and arouses the curiosity of art lovers to come to the Netherlands to explore Rotterdam’s collection in greater depth. Since 2015, the museum has developed a new programme of travelling exhibitions. Exhibitions have since been shown in China, Japan and Italy. In the coming years, Boijmans wants to collaborate even more intensively with museums and other institutions worldwide. Starting in New Zealand and later, a varying selection of artworks is expected to visit various museums around the world. So far, there have been exhibitions in China, Japan and Italy. In the coming years, Boijmans wants to partner even more intensively with museums and other institutions worldwide, beginning in New Zealand and then with a varying selection of artworks being shown in museums around the world.

Exhibitions abroad
An overview of which exhibitions of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen can be or could have been seen abroad:

Expected: ‘Surreal Art. Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’ in the Te Papa Tongarewa museum in Wellington
From 12 June 2021, 180 artworks by forty Surrealist artists from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will be shown on the other side of the world, in the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington. This museum is the National Museum of New Zealand and attracts approximately 1.5 million visitors each year. The exhibition ‘Surreal Art. Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’ has been developed jointly and will take place from 12 June 2021 to 31 October 2021. The exhibition features the Freudian 'Venus de Milo with Drawers' and the 'Mae West Lips Sofa' by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte’ mysterious painting 'Not to Be Reproduced', and Leonora Carrington’s dreamlike fantasy 'Again the Gemini are in the Orchard'. After New Zealand, a varying selection of artworks is expected to travel to museums around the world.
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Previous: ‘Dal Nulla al Sogno. Dada e Surrealismo dalla Collezione del Museo Boijmans Van Beuningen’
27.10.2018 – 25.02.2019 From October 2018 to February 2019, no fewer than 149 masterpieces by artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Man Ray were shown at the Fondazione Ferrero. The absolute highlight was Dalí’s triptych ‘Landscape with a Girl Skipping Rope’, which is rarely seen outside the museum.
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Previous: ‘Bruegel’s ‘The Tower of Babel’ and Great 16th Century Masters’
18.04.2017 – 02.07.2017 In 2017, the exhibition ‘Bruegel's “The Tower of Babel” and Great 16th-Century Masters’ opened at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Japan. The exhibition featured thirty-nine paintings, forty-three prints and ten sculptures by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Dutch masters from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
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Previous: ‘Bruegel’s ‘The Tower of Babel’ and Great 16th Century Masters’
11.07.2017 – 15.10.2017 The exhibition ‘Bruegel’s “The Tower of Babel” and Great 16th-Century Masters’ opened at the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan on 11 July 2017. The highlights were Bruegel’s ‘Tower of Babel’ (c. 1568) and Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Peddler’ (c. 1500).
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Previous: The Future of Fashion is Now China
28.10.2015 – 28.02.2016 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s exhibition, ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’ was shown in China in 2015. The successful exhibition about the fashions of tomorrow, with works by more than twenty-five international designers, opened on 28 October 2015 at the OCT Contemporary ART Terminal in Shanghai.
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Previous: The Future of Fashion is Now China
26.03.2016 – 31.07.2016 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s exhibition, ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’ travelled to China in 2015. The successful exhibition about the fashions of tomorrow, with works by more than twenty-five international designers, was shown from 26 March to 31 July 2016 at the OCT Art & Design gallery in Shenzhen.
Read moreTransit Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been closed since 2019 for a large-scale renovation and modernisation project. During this Transit period, the museum is showing its world-class collection in venues throughout Rotterdam and around the world. It has entered into a unique partnership with eight neighbouring venues in the city under the name ‘Boijmans Next Door’. Boijmans is also operating internationally, with travelling exhibitions abroad. At the beginning of the 2019/20 school year, the museum began showing works from the collection in local schools as part of ‘Boijmans in the Classroom’. Since the beginning of 2020, Boijmans, Humanitas and other local partners have been active in a former school in Rotterdam Zuid at Hillevliet 90. In the meantime, the construction of Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is progressing steadily. The world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility will open in early 2021 and will safely house and display 151,000 works of art.
More about Boijmans in Transit