You know the feeling. You’re on holiday and visit a landmark or building you’ve been looking forward to seeing for ages. Only to find it’s closed or covered in scaffolding. Your timing couldn’t possibly have been worse.|

It’s a gut-wrenching experience anyone visiting Amsterdam at some point during the last ten years might be familiar with. Because for the last decade, one of the Dutch capital’s star attractions has been embroiled in a massive renovation project. The Rijksmuseum, home to Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, has been through one of the most significant transformations ever undertaken by a museum.

Work started in 2004, and while it has remained open, parts of the historic building and a big chunk of its famed collection have not been accessible to the public. That all changed in the middle of April 2013, however, when the revamped museum finally staged its grand reopening.

It brought to an end ten long years of painstaking work which included faithfully restoring some of the original paintwork and overhauling the interior to bring it more into line with how architect Pierre Cuypers had designed the layout when the museum first opened in 1885. 

Modern age
For General Director Wim Pijbes, a fully open and completely transformed Rijksmuseum which is fit for the modern age is something he’s been looking forward to since he took up the position in 2008.

“When I arrived I only had one word – open. Open the building – as the end of the renovation project; open the collection – to share it with the world via the internet or lending to museums worldwide; and open the institution – to make us more accessible.

“It has been frustrating at times, because we have encountered a number of delays, but it’s incredibly exciting now that everything has come together and I’m very proud that all 440 staff members have achieved it together.”

Boasting 80 galleries, 6,500 paintings, 150,000 photographs and 700,000 works on paper, the Rijksmuseum’s collection tells the story of 800 years of Dutch art and history from the Middle Ages to the present day and features masterpieces by artists including Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals and Jan Steen.

But in Pijbes’ presence, you refer to Rembrandt and his contemporaries as Old Masters at your peril. “Rembrandt is a revolutionary painter from the 17^th century. He was not an Old Master and I don’t like that phrase. People think it refers to old people from the past. Rembrandt was a young artist for today’s people and he is still relevant. He’s timeless and universal. He is above time.”

The museum's prized possession – what Pijbes refers to as “our Mona Lisa” – is The Night Watch. For the last ten years, it has resided in a temporary gallery, but has now been returned to its original location in the heart of the building. In fact, it is the only artwork to remain in its old position. Everything else has been moved to a different part of the building.

Deciding on where to put everything was one of the many challenges Pijbes and his team faced during the renovation. One of the most fundamental was how to meet the needs of the 21^st century while retaining the museum’s keen sense of heritage and deep historical importance. “We adopted an approach similar to the Louvre in Paris,” he explains.

Old and new
"When it was renovated, they built glass pyramids but they didn’t create a 20^th century Louvre, they combined the old and the new so that one complemented the other. We’ve done the same thing. You see a Neo-Gothic building on the outside, then you enter the Atrium, which is new. 

"But you still see the original building all around you. So the look and feel is a harmonious combination of 21^st century and 19^th century which works perfectly.”

Achieving that balance owes a lot to the decision to, as Pijbes puts it, “renovate back to Cuypers”. Essentially, this involved composing a palette of colors that closely matched those the architect originally selected back in the 1880s, as well as reintroducing crucial aspects of his interior layout. For help with the colors, they turned to AkzoNobel.

After analyzing samples of the original paintwork, color matching experts from the company’s Sikkens brand reproduced more than 60 of Cuypers’ authentic 1885 colors, along with eight brand new colors. AkzoNobel also became the official supplier of all paint and decorative products used for the Rijksmuseum renovation, with more than 8,000 liters of Sikkens paint having been used throughout the building, both inside and out.

“Working with AkzoNobel and Sikkens was very important,” says Pijbes. “As the national museum, we are a catalog of what the Netherlands can bring to the world. We showcase the best art, the best ideas, the best paint and represent what the Dutch stand for. Through working with our partners, we also highlight the work of some of the best companies in the Netherlands, so we are proud to use AkzoNobel’s paint and expertise.”

Cultural ticket
The hope now, of course, is that visitors start flooding in. Before the transformation started, the Rijksmuseum used to attract around 1.4 million visitors a year. Pijbes estimates that figure will rise to around 1.7 following the reopening, but hopes to achieve closer to two million. “The reopening of the Rijksmuseum is the cultural ticket for Europe this year. In tourism terms, we are the biggest event in the Netherlands so I’m hoping that the continued appetite for museums works in our favor.” 

His comments raise an interesting point. Why do museums endure? In this gadget-crazy, technological age, what is it about museums that keeps people enthralled? “We are authentic, we have the real thing,” offers Pijbes. “The more that people are busy with gadgets, screens and virtual reality, the more they appreciate the real thing. Imagine what it would feel like to receive a hand-written letter in the mail these days. One-to-one contact is much more valued and appreciated and museums can offer that authenticity.”

Dazzling
You can’t argue with that. You only have to look at the sheer volume of dazzling work on display to appreciate that Pijbes is spot on. The Night Watch is a big enough draw in itself (although Pijbes admits he prefers The Jewish Bride and The Syndics), but the fact that much of the collection is being reunited for the first time in ten years (many artworks have been out on loan) is sure to attract a lot of attention.

The collection has also been enlarged and enriched by new acquisitions, while works that have been in storage have been renovated and are now back on display. What’s more, the library is now open to visitors for the very first time.

“We’ve got a beautiful building and a beautiful collection which we want to share with everyone,” continues Pijbes. “We have an exciting museum for a modern, international audience which is completely in step with the 21^st century.”

In the end though, it all boils down to one simple question. Why should people visit the new-look Rijksmuseum? “Because it’s one of the few places where you can see some of the best paintings in the world with your own eyes.”