National Museum of World Cultures
The collection of the National Museum of World Cultures is a combination of the collections of the Tropenmuseum, Africa Museum, Museum Volkenkunde and Wereldmuseum.
Traditional and contemporary art
The original collection of the Afrika Museum was assembled during the 1950s by missionary workers who had been active in Africa. Their purpose was to inform people about life in missionary regions. In addition, the Afrika Museum has a private collection that was compiled of purchases and donations.
African cultures are dynamic and African visual arts are no exception to that rule. The Afrika Museum closely follows these trends and increasingly purchases objects from contemporary artists from Africa and the African Diaspora.
Online collection
The collection of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen results from the merger of the Tropenmuseum, Afrika Museum and Museum Volkenkunde. It contains almost 370,000 objects and 260,000 historical images that of part of the state collection, and another 350.000 images of documentary value. Only a small part is on display in the museum galleries. Our collectionwebsite enables you to browse a growing part of the collection that is kept in the storage rooms. For this presentation, the collection has been subdivided in objects and photographic collections, and has been linked to constituents, exhibitions, expeditions and themes.
