The Westfries Museum is a museum of regional history established in the Dutch city of

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ( ...

. 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 of its museum. The museum has an extensive collection of paintings, silver objects, porcelain, historic firearms, objects of the

schutterij Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...

and

VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus ...

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 are 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 10 January 2005, the night the museum celebrated its 125th anniversary, four people stole 21 paintings of its paintings, including a piece by

Jan van Goyen Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (; 13 January 1596 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch landscape painter. The scope of his landscape subjects was very broad as he painted forest landscapesm marines, river landscapes, beach scenes, winter landscape, cityscap ...

from his youth, and part of the silver collection, valued in the millions of Euros. Four of the paintings were found back in Ukraine in April 2016.

Stolen from the Westfries Museum

De_Grashaven.jpg, ''De Grashaven'' by

Matthias Withoos Matthias Withoos (1627–1703), also known as Calzetta Bianca and Calzetti, was a Dutch painter of still lifes and city scenes, best known for the details of insects, reptiles and undergrowth in the foreground of his pictures.Seymour Slive, ...

Jacob Waben Vanity 1622.jpg, ''Vrouw Wereld'' by Jacob Waben (found in April 2016) Gerrit Pompe View on Enkhuizen.jpg, ''Gezicht op Enkhuizen'' by Gerrit Pompe Jan Claesz Rietschoof View on Oostereiland.jpg, ''Gezicht op Oostereiland'' by Jan Claesz. Rietschoof Golden book-locks 1700.jpg, Golden book-locks 0 2 membres de la guilde de St-Georges - Westfries Museum - Hoorn - Mac's à Hornu.jpg, Portrait of two members of the Guild of Saint George (ca. 1589), author unknown.

External links

{{Authority control Museums in North Holland Hoorn History museums in the Netherlands Local museums in the Netherlands Decorative arts museums 1880 establishments in the Netherlands