Kunsthal Rotterdam

South view (front / street side)

West elevation (side)

North view (rear / access from the park)

The Kunsthal Rotterdam is an art gallery without its own collection in Rotterdam . It organizes around 25 temporary exhibitions every year . When planning the exhibition, the most diverse aspects of the visual , performing and applied arts as well as other cultural topics, such as masterpieces of impressionism, history and design of lingerie, Leonardo da Vinci, culture of the Blackfoot Indians, oriental jewelry art or pop art are taken into account .

The building

The Kunsthal was planned in 1992 by the Rotterdam architectural office Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), the design comes from the architects Rem Koolhaas and Fumi Hoshino. The building is part of the museum park, the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum and the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut are in the vicinity .

The 3300 m² exhibition space is divided into three large exhibition halls and two smaller galleries . The building also houses an auditorium and a restaurant.

Art theft in 2012

On the night of October 15-16, 2012, the Kunsthalle turned into seven paintings by Lucian Freud ( Woman with Eyes Closed , 2002), Paul Gauguin ( Femme devant une fenêtre ouverte, dite la Fiancée , 1888), Jacob Meijer de Haan ( Autoportrait , between 1889 and 1891), Henri Matisse ( La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune , 1919), Claude Monet ( Charing Cross Bridge, London and Waterloo Bridge, London , both 1901) and Pablo Picasso ( Tête d'Arlequin , 1971) stolen. They belong to the so-called Triton Collection, a private collection of the Rotterdam businessman Willem Cordia (1940–2011). The pictures had been loaned for the special exhibition Avant-gardes , which opened on October 7, 2012 and was celebrated as part of the 20th anniversary of the Kunsthalle's existence. As it became known on July 17, 2013, apparently all paintings by the mother of the main suspect Romanian robber Radu Dogaru were burned for fear of discovery and to protect her son. The gang of thieves had previously tried in vain to sell the paintings. Experts and the media have estimated the market value of the images between 50 and 100 million euros, as the Art Loss Register is quoted. Other figures range up to 310 million euros. The verifiable insurance value was 18.1 million euros and was paid out in February 2013 by a consortium at Lloyd's of London .

Paul Gauguin: Femme devant une fenêtre ouverte, dite la Fiancée , 1888
Jacob Meijer de Haan: Self-Portrait , approx. 1889–91
Claude Monet: Charing Cross Bridge, London , 1901
Claude Monet: Waterloo Bridge, London , 1901