In 1652 Artus Quellinus designed the tympanum which can still be seen on the Royal Palace on Dam Square. This is a preliminary study. The woman in the center symbolizes Amsterdam, surrounded by various sea gods, sea goddesses, and aquatic animals. The message: Amsterdam is the center of maritime trade.

These wooden statues from the end of the 15th century depict the counts and countesses of Holland. The statues were originally made for the “Vierschaar”, the court of justice in the old town hall. Justice was administered in the name of those counts. Even today, a portrait of the king still hangs in courtrooms as a symbol of the rule of law.

In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam had no fewer than 21 monasteries and many churches and chapels, the most important of which were the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk. This fragment of a statue comes from one of the monasteries. It depicts the mourning Mary with her deceased son Christ on her lap. During the iconoclasm of 1578, the faces of Mary and Christ were scratched off by Calvinists, who opposed the veneration of saints. They tore down and destroyed many Catholic statues.

This drinking horn from 1566 was long used at feasts of the civic guard to toast their company. The civic guard consisted of citizens of the city who were responsible for defending the city and maintaining order. Because generations of civic guardsmen drank from the same horn, it not only united the guardsmen present, but also connected them with all the guardsmen who had gone before them.

Knowledge is power, and that was also true in the 17th century. Increasingly accurate world maps and globes were being made in Amsterdam. Indispensable for trade, they soon also became something to show off at home. Luxury atlases and globes were objects of study, but also status symbols.

In 1934, the General Expansion Plan was launched, an ambitious plan involving numerous large-scale urban expansions to prepare Amsterdam for the expected population of one million by the year 2000. The economic crisis and the Second World War caused delays, but after the war, neighborhoods such as Slotervaart, Bos en Lommer and Buitenveldert were built after all.

In 1863, Artis celebrated its 25th anniversary.  On that occasion, the members of the zoo presented the founder with this silver goblet. The goblet's ornaments, including the head of a lion, a buffalo, a rhinoceros, a crocodile and a turtle, are entirely tailored to the zoo's anniversary.

This painting is one of the oldest works in our collection. In 1538 it was commissioned from the artist by the mayors. At that time, four mayors were elected each year. Even then, the harbor was of great importance to Amsterdam, which is why the artist chose to depict it in the foreground. This is why north is at the bottom and south at the top.

“Here is the stock exchange, and money, and love of art,” wrote poet Thomas Asselijn about Amsterdam in 1653. Here, Lingelbach depicts Dam Square as a global trading market: at the bottom right, for example, are Turkish or Armenian traders. He thus links the construction of the imposing city hall (on the left, now the Royal Palace on Dam Square) to the wealth brought by international trade, which in turn benefited the arts.

Most of this painting was lost in a fire in 1721. The painting depicted the annual anatomy demonstration for surgeons and other interested parties. This preserved central section shows Dr. Jan Deijman performing an autopsy on the brain of a dead man. Rembrandt painted this scene at right angles to the picture plane, which makes it look like the feet are sticking out.

In this painting, Govert Flinck depicted how civic guardsmen, led by Joan Huydecoper (the man in black with the command staff), celebrated the conclusion of the Peace of Münster, which ended the Eighty Years' War with Spain. Yet the men still wore armor and carried weapons, as vigilance remained advisable. “The wise man lets his sword rest, but not rust,” wrote Jan Vos in a poem about the painting in 1650.

In 2017, artist Brian Elstak spent a month in the studio of Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost in Heesterveld in the Bijlmer (Bims); metro line 54 stops right outside the door. During his metro journeys Elstak observed and portrayed his fellow passengers. He captured their stories in this three-dimensional wooden painting.

On 7 May 1945, barrel organ “Het Snotneusje” was driven to Dam Square to provide musical accompaniment for the erupting liberation celebrations. When the celebrations turned to tragedy after German soldiers fired at the crowd, the organ saved the lives of those who were able to take shelter behind it. Marks of bullets hitting the organ can still be seen inside it.

The Royal Palace on Dam Square was originally built as Amsterdam's town hall. This model was used during construction to assist the carpenters. The building was inaugurated in 1655. Ten years later, the building was done. The town hall was the largest building in the Dutch Republic. It soon was nicknamed “the eighth wonder of the world”.

Jimmy van der Lak was born in Paramaribo in 1903 but arrived in Amsterdam in 1925 to pursue a career: he became a familiar face as a dancer, boxer, waiter, and film extra. During the Second World War, he was part of the resistance, and later he opened the first Surinamese restaurant in the Netherlands in Amsterdam. With his distinctive high cheekbones, he was also a popular artist's model, as seen here in this portrait by August Grotegoed.

In 1985, a very young Patrick Kluivert from Amsterdam-Noord poses as a youth footballer at Ajax alongside his idol Frank Rijkaard. Rijkaard grew up in De Baarsjes and was already making his mark in the first team. No one could have guessed that in his penultimate match for Ajax, Rijkaard would give the decisive pass that allowed Kluivert to score the only goal in the 1995 Champions League final.

Sara de Swart was a sculptor and art collector. In Amsterdam, she was part of the literary movement of the Tachtigers and supported several of them financially. She travelled extensively with her partner Emilie van Kerckhoff, including to the Dutch East Indies. The couple settled in Capri in 1914, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Sophia Lopez Suasso-de Bruijn bequeathed her entire collection to the city, along with a fortune that made the construction of the Stedelijk Museum possible. One of her passions was collecting jewelry, such as this piece. This is a watch in the shape of a chestnut.

This gold leather coat belonged to the wardrobe of “living work of art” Mathilde Willink. She loved to wear Fong Leng's creations. The two women were close friends until Mathilde's death in 1977. This coat is a good example of the exuberant style of Fong Leng's creations, combining different materials and using labor-intensive handicraft techniques.

In front of a whitewashed back wall, where a household item hangs and a single nail is visible, a kitchen maid is working at a table. Vermeer's Milkmaid? No, Adriaan de Lelie's Woman scrubbing a kettle, from 1796. De Lelie undoubtedly had Vermeer's famous work in mind. At the time, the painting by Vermeer was part of Jan Jacob de Bruijn's collection in Amsterdam.

This denim jacket was worn by Ivar Vičs (1960-1981), best known under his graffiti name Dr. Rat. He is still a legend among graffiti artists in Amsterdam. He was one of the people who gave the punk movement its visual identity. Vičs collaborated with Diana Ozon and Hugo Kaagman. He died of an overdose in 1981.

Every year, many bicycles are retrieved from the canal. They were stolen or parked too close to the water. Bicycles that have been in the water for a long time, such as this one, become covered in mussels. Millions of these shellfish live in the canal and they each purify 50 liters of water per day.