Drents Museum

The Drents Museum ( officially Dutch: Provincial Museum van Drenthe) is an art and cultural history museum in Assen, in the Dutch province of Drenthe. The museum was founded in 1885 and is in the former office building of the province of Drenthe. On 6 November 2007 the museum decided to erect an extension to be opened on schedule in 2011.

Collection

The museum has a large permanent exhibition on the prehistory and early history of the province of Drenthe. On display are archaeological finds of the Funnel Beaker Culture, with the dugout of Pesse one of the oldest boats, as well as some bog bodies like the girl of Yde and the men of Weerdinge. The museum also has changing exhibitions.

The art historical collection of the Museum houses one of the most important collections of Nordic realism in the Netherlands. On display are works by Henk, Matthijs Röling, Sam Drukker, Douwe Elias, Barend Blankert, Alfred Hafkenscheid, Eddy Roos and Berend Green. The collection of Dutch art and crafts from the years 1885-1935 includes works by Chris Lebeau, Vincent van Gogh, January Eisenloeffel Jan Toorop Jan Sluijters and Ids Wiersma. The museum also shows the living culture of an upper middle class family from the founding years of the museum.

Special

In the Olympic year of 2008, the Drents Museum showed in the period from 2 February to 31 August the exhibition Go China! Assen - Groningen Drenthe with the Terracotta Army as a central exhibits. This exhibition was the most successful exhibition in the northern Netherlands with 353,000 visitors. The museum also showed Chinese contemporary art with an emphasis on installations and photography since 2000. This exhibition was one of the two sites Assen and Groningen almost 500,000 visitors. From 27 September 2009 to 25 January 2010 is a major retrospective of the work of Eddy Roos with about 200 drawings, 70 bronze sculptures and excerpts from his 42 films planned with dancing and live performances.