'The collection belongs to everyone'

'The idea behind our new depot is that we want to show the whole collection and are able to do so.'

Sandra Kisters, head of Collections and Research Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Not everyone knows what the head of Collections and Research does. Can you tell us something about it? 

I'm responsible for looking after the museum's complete collection. This involves a variety of matters, including loans. More than 550 works a year travel to exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad. Obviously, it’s vital to conserve the art properly, including storage in museum-quality climate-controlled storage facilities. I’m also involved in researching the collection, restoration activities and acquiring new works. 

Before we discuss the new depot in greater depth, what makes the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen collection so special?

It’s incredibly diverse. The objects range from paintings to sculptures, from photography to video art, and they were made over many centuries. This collection is unique in the Netherlands because of its broad scope, great diversity and enviable international reputation. The quality of our collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age is on a par with the holdings of the Mauritshuis or the Rijksmuseum. Our collection of old master prints and drawings stands comparison with Teylers Museum and the Rijksmuseum. Similarly, our portfolio of modern art can hold its own when compared with the collections of the Stedelijk Museum and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. We furthermore have a stunning collection of decorative art and design.

What can you tell me about the arrangement of the collection in the depot?

From outside the depot is, of course, an architectural eyecatcher. Inside there will be a huge atrium crisscrossed by staircases, which will also be stunning. However, the depot’s round shape does present a challenge for the practical layout of the compartments. There is a massive benefit though, because soon the entire collection will be kept in one place in a first-class environment. In the various compartments, for example, there are five different climates, which are tailored to artworks made from different materials: metal, man-made substances, organic/inorganic materials, black-and-white photographs and colour photographs.

´We want to make the public more aware of the importance of properly maintaining a valuable art collection.´

Are preparations for the relocation underway?

Yes, we’re currently preparing the layout of the ‘positions’ (locations) of the objects in the depot. Every object is given a colour code at compartment level and a new location at object level. An object in the metal depot, for example, has colour code red, and its location could be rack 5, shelf 4 right. When the relocation takes place, the art transport people will know exactly where each work belongs. The way the collection is being organized depends, among other things, on material and size. In addition, we’re also working on arranging it on the basis of content. The paintings, for instance, will be kept on the second floor, which will have two large rings of painting storage racks. All old works will be in the inner ring and works dating from 1900 and later will be housed in the outer ring. This creates a splendid overview of developments in art history. Extra emphasis will be given to a few clusters, for example the Surrealist artworks will be grouped together. Other clusters include works on panel, which broadly speaking date from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It moreover makes sense to hang these objects together because it simplifies the process of checking the condition of the wooden panels. While we are classifying the paintings on the grounds of chronology, for design we are using material and technique as the most important criteria when grouping objects.

Why is it so important to open the depot to the general public?

There have been a number of public debates about why so much art is currently stored in depots. As a rule, only eight to ten percent of a collection is exhibited in a museum’s public galleries. Works in a depot are out of bounds to the public. Only a small select group of art professionals are able to see them. We also had his problem. We have over 154,000 objects in our collection and it’s impossible for us to exhibit them all in the museum. The idea behind our new depot is that we want to show the whole collection and are able to do so. Every visitor, accompanied by a guide, can enjoy what we have in our depot. This is truly unique. It’s not possible anywhere else in the world.

What makes it so important for the general public to watch these activities? And what’s the idea behind this transparency?

What we actually want is to make the public more aware of the importance of properly maintaining a valuable art collection and the wide range of activities this involves. At the same time, we want to make the collection more visible and accessible. This also includes, for instance, vulnerable artworks that normally speaking are less likely to be exhibited in the museum.

Many museums are not satisfied if they only present art to the public visually. They think that visitors should experience all sorts of things. The depot is also planning to adopt this approach. Why does it have to be some sort of ‘experience’?

The underlying principle is that we want to make the collection open to everyone. Visitors can decide not to take a guided tour and walk through the atrium independently. Then they can look at what interests them, but we do want to encourage them to find out as much as possible about the collection and the care that’s taken to conserve it. We want to give every individual visitor a unique experience so that they feel a personal involvement.