Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has announced that it will open a new sculpture garden in the fall of 2026. The endeavor will be funded by a donation of nearly $70 million from the Don Quixote Foundation. According to Dutch News, the foundation is financed by Dutch billionaire Rolly van Rappard, who founded venture capital company CVC.
The site of the new garden will be in Carel Willinkplantsoen, a small park just across the Boerenwetering canal from the Rijksmuseum. The park will be merged with three adjacent pavilions built in the “Amsterdam School” style. The Rijksmuseum has engaged the London architecture firm Foster + Partners to renovate the pavilions, which will soon be open to the public for the first time. Piet Blanckaert, a Belgian landscape architect, will oversee the design of the gardens.
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The Rijksmuseum’s general director, Taco Dibbits, said in a statement that the new garden will “give modern sculpture the visibility it deserves. It also marks an unprecedented enhancement of the Rijksmuseum’s collection of 20th-century art.”
The museum plans to showcase works by artists like Alberto Giacometti, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jean Arp, Roni Horn and Henry Moore in the new space, as well as organize temporary sculpture exhibitions in the pavilions. Like the Rijksmuseum Gardens—a small but flower-filled tranquil space directly in front of the museum, which is also funded by the Don Quixote Foundation—the new sculpture garden will have free admission during the day.
