H'ART Museum is an art museum located on the banks of the Amstel river in Amsterdam. Formerly a satellite of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia, the museum cut ties with the Hermitage after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

History

The museum is housed in the former Amstelhof, a classical style building from 1681. The structure opened in 1682 as a retirement home for elderly women under the name Diaconie Oude Vrouwen Huys on the east bank of the river Amstel. Beginning in 1817, the facility housed both elderly men and women, and was renamed Diaconie Oude Vrouwen- en Mannenhuis (English: Deanery Home for Old Men and Women). The building was first named Amstelhof in 1953. In the 1990s, operators of the facility determined that it was inadequate to meet the modern needs of its residents and sought to build a new structure elsewhere. They offered the historic structure to the city of Amsterdam, who, in turn, leased it to the museum. The last inhabitants left the Amstelhof in 2007. On 20 June 2009, the museum was opened by Dutch Queen Beatrix and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The museum was open to the public the following day. During the more than 300 years that residents were housed in the Amstelhof, several renovations took place on the building interior and wings were added to provide needed space. Thus, little of the original interior remained when work for the museum began. While some areas were restored to their original appearance, many existing walls were removed and spaces reconfigured to accommodate the museum's needs. The total cost of the renovations was €40 million. The temporary museum in the Neerlandia Building on the Nieuwe Keizersgracht closed in 2008 to become the Hermitage for Children. It opened along with the main museum on 20 June 2009. On 3 March 2022, the museum severed ties with the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began a week prior. The museum became known as the H'ART Museum from 1 September 2023.

Exhibitions

In 2023 the museum announced that it would be working with the Smithsonian, the Centre Pompidou and the British Museum to present exhibitions. 2023-2024 Julius Caesar - I came, I saw, I met my doom

Previous exhibitions