until Sunday January 13 2019

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
T : +31 (0)10 44 19 400
Museumpark 18
NL-3015 CX Rotterdam
The Netherlands

In the autumn of 2018, the museum will examine its own history during the Second World War and the period immediately thereafter. A multifaceted exhibition and a new publication in the ‘Boijmans Studies’ series will examine the wartime activities of Museum Boymans, as it was then known, paying particular attention to the role of the museum’s director, Dirk Hannema, and the circle of collectors and patrons around the museum. Following the devastating bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940, Hannema emerged as a defender of the city’s cultural heritage and a champion of contemporary art in the city. Under his leadership, the museum even managed to acquire countless artworks during these difficult years and organise a series of well-attended exhibitions. An ambitious museum director, Hannema enthusiastically adapted to the new occupying regime, which resulted in his being dismissed following the Liberation as a collaborator.