One of the world’s most-visited museums plans an extension in an industrial Dutch city

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The landmark Dutch museum that holds some of the most famous paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer announced Thursday that it is planning a new branch in the southern city of Eindhoven to give more people access to its vast trove of art and artifacts.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which has more than a million objects in its collection — many of them securely stored and not accessible to the public — said in a statement that the new museum will be built with support from the Eindhoven municipality and Dutch semiconductor chip machine maker ASML, that is based in nearby Veldhoven.

The national museum, that is home to works including Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn’s “Nightwatch” painting, “is always seeking new ways to share the collection with people across the Netherlands,” its general director, Taco Dibbits, said in a statement. “The Rijksmuseum in Eindhoven represents an important step in making the collection even more accessible in the south of the country.”

The new museum, planned to cover more than 3,500 square meters (37,673 square feet) in parkland on the banks of the Dommel River close to Eindhoven’s central railway station, is scheduled to open in six to eight years, the Rijksmuseum said.

As well as Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum’s holdings include a world-renowned collection of Dutch Golden Age masterpieces by artists such as Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals and Rachel Ruysch.

“The new museum in Eindhoven will allow the Rijksmuseum to increase the visibility of its collection and make art accessible to a wider audience,” the museum said in a statement.

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Eindhoven Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the museum will be “a valuable addition to the cultural landscape” in the city and surrounding region that is about a two-hour drive south of Amsterdam.

The Rijksmuseum, which drew nearly 2.5 million visitors in 2024, is one of the top visitor draws in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital that has been taking measures to rein in overtourism that has choked its cobbled canalside streets in recent years.

Eindhoven, once home to electronics and consumer products giant Philips, casts itself as a high-tech hub, with multinational ASML attracting highly skilled workers from around the world. The city is also home to a highly regarded technical university.

The Rijksmuseum is not the first major art institution to open another location. The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017 as part of a cultural exchange partnership between the United Arab Emirates and France. There’s also a Louvre in the northern France coal mining town of Lens.

London’s Victoria and Albert has its flagship museum in the affluent South Kensington neighborhood, but has two other branches in the city, including a recently opened Storehouse in the east where visitors can walk through and even touch parts of its huge collection.