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Airbnb donates to Rijksmuseum Night Watch restoration, hosts free viewing for locals

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Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb and Rijksmuseum are announcing a free open evening at the museum to give Amsterdammers the opportunity to view the famous Night Watch painting
  • Visitors to the museum will be able to view the artwork and learn about the work of the researchers and restorers who are looking after the painting
  • Airbnb also announced it has donated €350K to Rijksmuseum from its Amsterdam Community Fund and to give back to local communities

Key Takeaways

  • Airbnb and Rijksmuseum are announcing a free open evening at the museum to give Amsterdammers the opportunity to view the famous Night Watch painting
  • Visitors to the museum will be able to view the artwork and learn about the work of the researchers and restorers who are looking after the painting
  • Airbnb also announced it has donated €350K to Rijksmuseum from its Amsterdam Community Fund and to give back to local communities

Airbnb and Rijksmuseum are announcing a free open evening at the museum to give Amsterdammers who haven’t seen the famous Night Watch painting the opportunity to view the artwork and enjoy the shared cultural heritage that makes Amsterdam unique.

The free open evening will take place on 11 July 2022 and enable up to 2000 Amsterdammers to access the museum for free. People can request tickets from 15 June 2022 via the Rijksmuseum website – www.rijksmuseum.nl. 

The Rijksmuseum is in the midst of Operation Night Watch, the largest research and restoration project in the history of this world-famous painting. Visitors to the museum will be able to view the artwork and learn about the work of the researchers and restorers who are looking after the painting.

Airbnb also announced it has donated €350K to Rijksmuseum from its Amsterdam Community Fund, launched last year to support a more sustainable return of tourism in Amsterdam, and to give back to local communities. The donation has supported the restoration of the Night Watch. 

“We are delighted that the stays on our platform will support the restoration of the Night Watch, and help enable more Amsterdammers to access The Rijksmuseum to enjoy its most famous resident. This important restoration project is close to many Amsterdammers’ hearts, and we are proud that we can be part of opening the museum to Amsterdammers.”

Pieter Guldemond, Head of Policy Northern Europe at Airbnb

“We are very grateful to Airbnb for this generous gesture. We also see it as a major priority to spread the benefits of tourism to all Amsterdammers. Rembrandt’s Night Watch is owned by the City of Amsterdam and therefore belongs a bit to every Amsterdammer. With the donation we can fulfil our responsibility to preserve the painting for the future and in due time show the results of the restoration to as many locals as possible. We want to share this with everyone and in particular with the residents of Amsterdam.”

Hendrikje Crebolder, Director of Development & Media at Rijksmuseum

The donation follows Airbnb’s voluntary implementation and support of registration for holiday rentals, and the launch of the Airbnb City Portal in all G4 cities. These actions are helping to strengthen communities by making it easier for each municipality to identify and report bad actors on the platform, for example, suspected non-compliant listings with an incorrect registration number or invalid exemption. 
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About The Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of art and history by and for everyone. It connects people art and history. The Rijksmuseum offers an overview of Dutch art and history from the Middle Ages to the present day. More than 8,000 paintings – including the world-famous masterpieces of Rembrandt and Vermeer -, drawings, prints, photographs, silver, porcelain, delft blue, furniture and more are permanently presented side by side. They give visitors a sense of time and a sense of beauty. The collection is constantly being researched, re-evaluated and supplemented in order to tell as complete a story as possible about the Netherlands. With exhibitions, the Rijksmuseum tells untold and personal stories that generate dialogue and offer different perspectives on the collection. We achieve this by placing the collection in an international context and by highlighting socially relevant topics that have not received sufficient attention until now.

About Airbnb

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

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