THE HAGUE – A renowned Dutch museum, famous for housing masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer, announced plans on Thursday to establish a new branch in Eindhoven, aiming to broaden public access to its extensive art and artifact collection.

The Rijksmuseum, located in Amsterdam, boasts a collection of over a million items, many of which remain in storage and out of the public eye. In a recent statement, the museum revealed that the new branch will be developed with the backing of the Eindhoven city council and ASML, a semiconductor equipment company based in nearby Veldhoven.

Taco Dibbits, the museum’s general director, emphasized their ongoing efforts to disseminate the collection more widely across the Netherlands. He noted, “The establishment of the Rijksmuseum in Eindhoven is a significant move to enhance accessibility to our collection in the southern region of the country.”

Scheduled to open in six to eight years, the new museum will span over 3,500 square meters (approximately 37,673 square feet) and will be situated in a picturesque parkland along the Dommel River, conveniently close to Eindhoven’s central train station.

Beyond Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum’s collection includes an impressive array of Dutch Golden Age art, featuring works by notable 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.

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.