Housing The Golden Coach

On Thursday, June 17, 2021, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander officially opened the exhibition The Golden Carriage in the Amsterdam Museum.

A week earlier, the carriage was lifted over the museum building with a crane at night and placed in the courtyard. Here the carriage was carefully driven into the glass protective cabinet and then the display case was immediately closed with two glass plates. After more than five years of restoration, the Golden Carriage is back on public display for the first time.

The carriage will be on loan to the Amsterdam Museum until February 27, 2022. The carriage thus temporarily returns to Amsterdam, the city that presented it to Queen Wilhelmina in 1898. The Golden Carriage is displayed in a glass enclosure in the spacious girls' courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum. The carriage is the subject of a current debate because of one of the side panels, entitled Praise of the Colonies. People from the colonies hand over products and other gifts to a white young woman who represents the Netherlands. More and more people find this representation of colonialism out of place in national celebrations.

Kloosterboer has been responsible for the construction and development of this air-conditioned glass enclosure where safety plays an extremely important role. We have achieved this, among other things, with laminated glass plates of 6 centimeters thick containing foil that protects the carriage against UV radiation. Kloosterboer was also responsible for the interior design of the exhibition.

We thank the Amsterdam Museum for the trust and this special assignment. We have been able to achieve this together thanks to the efforts of our subcontractors. It was special to experience that the Golden Carriage was the connecting factor that gave everyone the right energy to achieve this beautiful end result