TAKIYA タキヤ株式会社

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam first opened its doors in 1800. As the largest museum in the Netherlands, its monumental building--designed by Pierre Cuypers, the same architect behind Amsterdam Central Station--stands proudly in the heart of the capital. Home to more than 8,000 works spanning the Middle Ages to the modern era, the museum is renowned for its outstanding collection of Dutch masters, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. Visitors from around the world come to admire masterpieces such as The Night Watch and The Milkmaid, as well as the museum's remarkable spaces, including the Gallery of Honour and the Cuypers Library.

Beginning in 2004, the Rijksmuseum embarked on an ambitious restoration that required the main building to close for an entire decade. Widely regarded as the "restoration of the century," the project became a national undertaking supported by both the City of Amsterdam and the Dutch government. Its extraordinary scale even inspired a documentary film. At last, in April 2013, the restoration was completed, and Her Majesty Queen Beatrix officially reopened the museum.

Amid this exceptionally challenging project, TAKIYA was selected as the supplier of the museum's exhibition hardware. The relationship between TAKIYA and the Rijksmuseum dates back to 1993, when TAKIYA first supplied its picture rail system to the museum. This was followed by work on the museum's branch facility at Schiphol Airport, where TAKIYA developed a range of custom hardware solutions. The proven quality of these products ultimately led to TAKIYA's participation in the restoration of the museum's main building. Without compromising the beauty of the museum's historic interiors, TAKIYA's picture rails and exhibition hardware now support some of the world's greatest masterpieces--works that can truly be regarded as part of humanity's shared cultural heritage.

The Rijksmuseum's "restoration of the century" captivated not only the people of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, but art lovers around the globe. After ten years of painstaking renewal, the final task of this historic project was the installation of TAKIYA's exhibition hardware and the hanging of the masterpieces that define one of the world's greatest museums.