About Museum Beelden aan Zee

Museum Beelden aan Zee was founded in 1994 by the collector couple Theo Scholten and Lida Scholten-Miltenburg. It is the only museum in the Netherlands that focuses exclusively on modern and contemporary, (inter) national sculpture.

The first figurine for the Beelden aan Zee collection was bought in 1969. The Beelden aan Zee collection now includes more than 5000 sculptures, including about 1000 plaster models and 500 tokens.

The collection varies from portraits to monumental, larger-than-life sculptures. The leitmotif was originally the image of man; where artists want to unravel both the outward appearance and the human psyche. Man is the most versatile subject imaginable, for centuries artists and sculptors have taken man as their central subject. The most diverse materials are also used, from bronze, stone and ceramics to styrofoam, plastic, glass, textile and iron.

The Beelden aan Zee collection includes work by Armando, Atelier van Lieshout, Stephan Balkenhol, Zadok Ben-David, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Fernando Botero, Caspar Berger, César, Tom Claassen, Iris Le Rütte, Wessel Couzijn, Tony Cragg. , Eugène Dodeigne, Jeroen Henneman, Per Kirkeby, Giacomo Manzú, Igor Mitoraj, Jan Meefout, Mimmo Paladino, Jaume Plensa, Thom Puckey, Kiki Smith, Marc Quinn, Johan Tahon, Shinkichi Tajiri, William Turnbull, Henk Visch and Ossip Zadkine.

Since February 2017, part of the collection, under the name VoorBeelden, has been continuously exhibited in the small hall. Some images can be viewed in 3D here on the website.

The shape of the Beelden aan Zee museum is similar to that of a shell; on the outside only the soft beige wall can be seen and only inside does the museum building designed by architect Wim Quist reveal itself. In the various halls and terraces, around twelve exhibitions are organized a year with international modern sculpture in the most diverse materials and styles.