The Amsterdam Museum Quarter

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Stedelijk Museum

Top choice in Amsterdam


This fabulous museum houses the collection amassed by postwar curator Willem Sandberg. The ground-floor Stedelijk Base exhibition displays a rotating selection of the amazing collection's highlights, featuring works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Van Gogh, Rothko, Jeff Koons, Yves Klein, Lichtenstein, Yayoi Kusama and more, plus an exuberant Karel Appel mural. The museum also hosts excellent temporary exhibitions. The free in-depth audioguide is fantastic and there are themed guided tours; book online. Unlike other museums in the area, you seldom have to queue.

Museumkaart and I Amsterdam cardholders get in free. The building was originally a bank, built in 1895 to a neo-Renaissance design by AM Weissman, and the modern extension is nicknamed 'the Bathtub' for reasons that will be obvious when you see it.