LOST MUSEUM: ROYAL CABINET OF RARITIES I Format: Paperback

Over 200 years ago, the Mauritshuis hosted two museums. The Royal Cabinet of Rarities closed in 1875, and its collection was dispersed. An exhibition at the Hague and this publication explore its history

Over 200 years ago, the Mauritshuis hosted not one, but two museums. On the upper floor was the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, while on the ground floor, thousands of objects of all kinds were on display in the Royal Cabinet of Rarities. This rarities cabinet closed in 1875 and the objects were distributed to various Dutch institutions. The temporary exhibition The Vanished Museum about this Royal Cabinet of Rarities is accompanied by a publication with essays by 30 experts, including curators of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Wereldmuseum in Leiden. In relatively short texts, the reader is taken through the rich and often complex history of the institution. The diverse topics and perspectives suit the motley nature of the collection. From a text about an unusual ivory Chinese puzzle ball, to a reflection on the formation of cultural stereotypes; from a kayak on the ceiling, to a hat that turns out not to belong to Willem van Oranje after all.

Justine Rinnooy Kan - Curator, Mauritshuis in Den Haag (The Hague), The Netherlands. Sheila Reda - Junior Curator, Mauritshuis in Den Haag (The Hague), The Netherlands. Martine Gosselink is General Director of the Mauritshuis. Before joining the Rijksmuseum, Gosselink was a partner and co-founder of the cultural collective De Nieuwe Collectie. Since 1995, she has worked on exhibitions, publications and cultural projects for museums in countries including the Netherlands, New York, Iran and Sri Lanka. In 1995, she completed her studies with Professor Ernst van der Wetering at the University of Amsterdam (17th-century art history).