2011 good year for Hague museums

Various museums in The Hague finished off 2011 with a record number of visitors. Last year can now stand in the books as a good museum year for The Hague.

Statistics show that the Gemeentemuseum received more than 436,000 visitors and the Mauritshuis more than 261,000 visitors. The Historical Museum of The Hague passed the 100,000 mark and Muzee Scheveningen set a record with 30,000 visitors. Including Panorama Mesdag the city’s museums drew 936,000 visitors in 2011.
 
The Gemeentemuseum (including The Hague Museum of Photography and GEM) managed to attract more than 436,000 visitors in 2011 together with Escher in het Paleis. The Escher Museum reached an absolute milestone with 100,000 visitors, just prior its 10-year anniversary. The municipal museums exceeded their collective goal of 400,000 visitors in 2011.

The Mauritshuis surpassed its busy year in 2010 with 261,000 visitors (in total 278,000 including the Prince William V Gallery). The special exhibition ‘Dalí Meets Vermeer’ proved to be a big hit with modern works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet and Francis Bacon paired with old masters from the Mauritshuis. The museum closed 2010 with almost 240,000 visitors (including 7,500 to the newly-reopened Prince William V Gallery).
 
The Stichting Haags Historisch Museum, which consists of the Historical Museum of The Hague and the Prison Gate Museum, also received its 100,000th visitor in December. Both museums closed 2011 off successfully.
 
Muzee Scheveningen was also able to set a record with 30,000 visitors to this museum which is so typical of Scheveningen.

Despite large-scale construction work, Panorama Mesdag was able to close the year with more than 123,000 visitors. Mesdag’s huge canvas is literally hanging in the scaffolding at the moment. Work should be completed in the summer of 2012 and visitors can then admire the renovated and larger museum.