Westfries Museum
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The Westfries Museum is a museum of regional history established in the Dutch city of Hoorn.
It was opened on 10 January 1880 and has been established in a monumental building dating to 1632. This building originally belonged to the Gecommitteerde Raden van West-Friesland en het Noorderkwartier, as a part of the Staten van Holland en West-Friesland, and later became a court. Until 1932 part of the building housed the kanton's court and part its museum.
The museum has an extensive collection paintings, silver objects, porcelain, historic firearms, objects of the schutterij and VOC objects. The collection is exhibited in 25 rooms, of which one is a style-room. In 1953, 15th century cellars were discovered under the building. These have been restored and now used as exhibition spaces for archaeological objects from Hoorn and its surroundings.
The museum is supported by the Friends Foundation of the Westfries Museum that was set up on the initiative of the Westfries Society.
On the night the museum celebrated its 125th anniversary on 10 January 2005 (Koppermaandag), four people stole 21 paintings of its paintings, including a work done by Jan van Goyen in his youth, and part of the silver collection, doing damage costing in millions of Euros.
