Rijksmuseum to delight Schiphol travelers even more than the duty-free cheeses

The Rijksmuseum, ever the innovator in devising new ways for people to experience its incalculable cultural patrimony, opened a mini-branch at Schiphol airport. It was the first museum in the world to open in an airport. Now Rijksmuseum Schiphol is back again and better than ever in a newly refurbished space. The area just past security between Lounge 2 and 3, dubbed Holland Boulevard, has been converted into a museum showcasing some of the Netherlands’ greatest works of art.

The exhibition space was designed in an S-shape for ease of movement and travellers can enter it from two opposite sides. On display are 10 paintings from the Rijksmuseum collection. There are two pairs of exceptional portraits, landscapes with windmills enough to satisfy the most demanding of tourists, a floral still life that anyone who has played with the museum’s fantastic Rijkstudio gallery will recognize as the sample image on how to use the system, turbulent seascapes on canvas and on tile. Among the masters on display are Jan van Goyen, Willem van de Velde the Younger, Abraham Mignon and Michiel van Mierevelt.

For those last-minute “what did you bring me?” presents, there is also a gift shop with souvenirs from famous Dutch museums, including the Rijksmuseum. (They have some pretty great stuff, actually. I reverently clip my toenails into The Night Watch mini-tray my parents got me from the Rijksmuseum gift shop a few years ago.)

The new exhibition makes Schiphol the only airport in the world with original 17th century artworks on display in the terminal. If visitors can’t make it to Holland Boulevard, Schiphol will give them a little something cool to remember the Netherlands’ art by anyway. Starting on September 5th, the entire 73-meter facade of carousel 16 in Baggage Hall 3 was decorated with pictures of 45 iconic paintings by the likes of Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Mostaert, Johannes Vermeer and Vincent van Gogh.

Rijksmuseum Schiphol is open 24 hours a day and admission is free. Travellers flying into or out of Amsterdam will be able to transmute the base metal of slogging through airports into the purest Dutch Golden Age.

7 thoughts on “Rijksmuseum to delight Schiphol travelers even more than the duty-free cheeses

  1. This is an outstanding idea. I wonder how many cities have a surplus of art and artifacts that might be displayed at their otherwise uninspiring airports? Rome comes to mind….

    -Jeff

  2. I agree that the new exhibition makes Schiphol the only airport with original 17th century artworks on display. And I love my favourite artists (Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer) are the stars.

    Hopefully long distant travellers will be awake enough to maximise the pleasure.

  3. Great article, I can relate! I spent 5 months traveling last year, went to southeast Asia for some of that time. It was great but there was so much trash everywhere it made me feel like no one in Vietnam or Cambodia cared about their dirty streets 🙁

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