Joop van Caldenborgh Reflects on His Museum Voorlinden’s First Decade

A decade ago, Dutch industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh opened the Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, Netherlands. To mark the institution’s anniversary, he spoke to ARTnews about his journey as a collector, the museum’s history and anniversary plans, and his latest acquisitions.

ARTnews: How did you start collecting?

Joop van Caldenborgh: When I was a young boy, I collected stamps, sugar packs, cigar tins—all kinds of little things that could be collected. When it became art, it was the same kind of habit. I bought my first piece of art when I was 16, using my newspaper delivery money, but that is not “collecting.” It takes time before you really are a “collector.”

When did you realize you had risen to that status?

I was certainly much older, maybe in my early 40s, when my wife said to me, “Why do you still buy art that you cannot hang anymore?” I realized I had this disease of being a collector: somebody who buys although they have nowhere left to hang the art. That is the whole idea of collecting. Only after a certain time do you realize you have to do something with it.

Is that what led you to create the Museum Voorlinden?

It was never my intention to start a museum. That came late in life and was unexpected. The idea started in 2010 when my son, who now runs the family company, Caldic, said to me, “Why don’t you make an exhibition at the Kunsthal Rotterdam?” With Suzanne Swarts, who is the now director of the Museum Voorlinden, we organized an exhibition, “I promise to love you: Caldic Collection,” named after a Tracey Emin work we own. I remember well how much fun it was to do that and afterward said, “We need our own exhibition space.” We didn’t dare to call it a museum; it was an exhibition space. In 2011, we bought the Voorlinden Estate, which is about 100 acres with an old mansion on the property. It also happens to be very close to where I live. It took five years to open because we had to get governmental permission to build the museum as it’s in nature and very close to the sea.

What are some cornerstones of the collection?

That’s difficult to answer. I have six children; if you ask which one is my favorite, you’re in trouble. It’s the same with the art. All the art is collected with a certain devotion and emotion. All of the works are loved. What I can tell you is that when I started, I collected the more abstract works of the Zero [movement], from the late ’50s and early ’60s. I have a bit of a mathematical mind, so I liked that kind of art—and nobody understood it. Everybody said I was crazy. At the museum, some of the cornerstones, which are permanent, are a James Turrell skyspace, Ron Mueck’s Couple under an Umbrella (2013), a large Richard Serra that he made for us, and a swimming pool by Leandro Erlich, which is maybe the most Instagrammable part of the museum.

What makes an artwork a trophy?

For me, a trophy is not defined by the price of an artwork, but by the strength of my connection to it. I like artworks that move me emotionally. They don’t have to be beautiful or made by a famous artist. The real question is simple: do I like it? I fell in love with a monumental outdoor sculpture by Tracey Emin and acquired it for our sculpture garden last year. But equally rewarding are works by artists who are still being discovered, who haven’t already secured their place in art history. That is one of the great pleasures of collecting contemporary art: encountering extraordinary minds and talking to artists about their work, life, and philosophy. It helped me see things differently and discover that there are a multitude of ways you can look at the world, far beyond the notion of trophies.

How would you characterize the past decade of the museum being open to the public?

It’s very strange if you never thought of building a museum. I was always in a business-to-business [industry], not business-to-consumers, and museums are consumer-facing. How you approach the public is different. I’m lucky we have a director who understands that very well. It’s not my forte. But what I am most proud of is if I look out of window from the mansion and see the entrance of the museum at 11 o’clock in the morning, I see a line waiting to go inside. When I go into the museum, I see people enjoying themselves. That they visited makes me happy.

What differentiates the Museum Voorlinden from other collector museums around the world?

There are many very good collector museums in the world, and I am rather modest. But I think we combine art, architecture, and nature together very well. It’s beautiful nature around here; the architecture is very fine. In the museum, we have hardly any objects that disturb you from looking at art. We have a kind of a dialogue between the museum’s park and what’s inside.

What are some of your recent acquisitions, and what drew you to them?

It’s often like love at first sight. A work simply stops you in your tracks and just feels right. Sometimes I can immediately imagine it at Voorlinden. That was the case with Kader Attia’s Resonance (2025), an installation of suspended birdcages fitted with bells. It is visually striking, but it also captures a paradox of contemporary life. We are constantly connected, yet often isolated, each with our own voice while genuine dialogue can be hard to achieve.

Another is an extraordinary eight-meter-long painting, Oceanic Underwater (2025), by Howardena Pindell. It is made up of thousands of tiny sprayed dots, but when viewed from a distance, it’s like looking at an ocean. It is immersive and almost meditative. The closer you look, the more you appreciate the labor and precision that went into its making.

To celebrate the museum’s 10-year anniversary, you are opening “Celebrating the Icons of Art” in September. How did that come about?

It was Suzanne’s idea to make this “Icons” exhibition and have it use the whole museum. Alongside works from our collection, we will have loans from museums around the world—we will get their icons. We will have pieces by Claude Monet, Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, David Hockney, Ron Mueck, Daniel Buren, and Damien Hirst. It will be the most experimental and biggest exhibition we have made in the past 10 years.

What else is coming up for the Museum Voorlinden?

Early next year we will have an Olafur Eliasson show at the museum, followed by a Nicolas Party exhibition. Eliasson will also use the whole museum. We have a number of works by Eliasson, and he is also making special works for the exhibition. We only own one work by Party, but maybe there’s an opportunity to get more. I don’t know.

What are you looking forward to for the next decade?

I hope I will be here for the next 10 years. We still have a lot of exhibitions that we would like to make.