ROTTERDAM, 3 APRIL 2026 – Museum Rotterdam has received a legacy of more than €500,000 to expand its collection, giving the city museum a substantial boost as it works towards its future home at Het Steiger. The donation also includes a number of coins, which will soon be viewable online as part of the museum’s collection.
Image: Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, director of Museum Rotterdam, with Said Kasmi, Rotterdam alderman for culture.
The legacy comes from Mrs Hille, who died in 2022. Because her will was drawn up before Museum Rotterdam became an independent institution, the funds were formally transferred through the Municipality of Rotterdam and have now been awarded to the museum.
What makes this donation especially important is that the money must be used specifically for collection growth. That gives Museum Rotterdam extra room to strengthen its acquisitions fund at a moment when the institution is reshaping its future and preparing for a new location in the city centre.
A timely boost for Museum Rotterdam
According to director Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, the legacy arrives at exactly the right time. Museum Rotterdam is currently working towards its new city museum site at Het Steiger, and the extra funding will help the institution build out the collection that will support that next chapter.
She said: “This comes at a very good moment, now that we are working on the city museum in a new location at Het Steiger. With this legacy, we can further strengthen our acquisitions fund. It also helps us to map Rotterdam’s heritage and history even better and make it accessible to everyone.”
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More room to tell Rotterdam’s story
That matters because a city museum lives or dies by what it can actually show. A collection budget of this size gives Museum Rotterdam more scope to acquire objects that deepen the story of the city and make that story available to a wider public.
Alongside the financial gift, Mrs Hille also donated a number of coins to the museum. Those will soon be available to view online, adding another tangible layer to the museum’s growing digital and physical collection.
Support for culture in the city
The Municipality of Rotterdam has also thanked the Hille family for what it described as a valuable contribution to both the museum and the city. Alderman for Culture Said Kasmi said the legacy will help Museum Rotterdam continue expanding and opening up the history of Rotterdam for everyone.
For Rotterdam, this is the kind of gift that quietly shapes the future of a cultural institution. It does not come with a flashy new building or a one-off spectacle, but it gives Museum Rotterdam more power to preserve, interpret and share the city’s history over the long term.
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Looking ahead to Het Steiger
With Museum Rotterdam developing its new home at Het Steiger, the timing of the legacy adds extra weight. It gives the museum more freedom to think carefully about what future audiences should be able to see, and which parts of Rotterdam’s heritage deserve a stronger place in the collection.
In that sense, the donation is about more than money. It is also about what kind of city memory gets preserved, and how Rotterdam continues telling its own story through objects, archives and public access.
