A Fresh Start for Two Dutch Museums

Museums devoted to two of Amsterdam’s most renowned residents have been renovated with new offerings this fall.

Last week a new educational wing opened at the Anne Frank House, the hiding place-turned-museum where the young Jewish diarist and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. The opening capped a decade of renovation at the museum, Amsterdam’s top tourist draw, with more than 800,000 annual visitors.

Computer terminals now offer a “virtual tour” of the home’s history, with images of what the house looked like before the war. Another display shows how experts recently uncovered a drawing of a little girl, traced in pencil by Anne, while peeling away clippings she had glued to the wall. And the front of the house, which contained her father’s spice and jam trading company, has been restored to its original state.

Also last week, the Rembrandthuis Museum reopened after a yearlong project to re-create the interior as it was when the 17th century master lived there. The artist bought the house in 1639 and created some of the world’s greatest masterpieces there. The museum is featuring an exhibit from Rembrandt’s personal art collection.