Art and the City 

Since 1926 the Amsterdam Historical Museum has provided a home for the city's art collection. This has grown since the seventeenth century when the city first began displaying paintings and objects at the town hall on Dam Square. Over the years many items from city institutions were added, including portraits of militia corps and governors of institutions, guild silverware and the statues of David and Goliath. In the nineteenth century prominent citizens also left private collections to the city, like that shown at the Willet-Holthuysen Museum.

By 2008 the Amsterdam Historical Museum collection encompassed over 65,000 objects, either on display or stored in depots. In addition, the museum also supervises municipal art at locations throughout the city, like the portrait gallery at the Stadsschouwburg theatre, the furnishings at the Berlage Bourse and the period rooms in the official residence of the mayor. One other key aspect of the city's art collection has been housed at the Rijksmuseum since it opened in 1885. That is the collection of seventeenth-century art acquired by the banker Adriaan van der Hoop - and bequeathed to the city in 1854 - to which we owe Rembrandt's Jewish Bride and Vermeer's Woman Reading a Letter.