Museum Beelden aan Zee

Museum Beelden aan Zee is the only museum in the Netherlands entirely dedicated to modern and contemporary sculpture, featuring a diverse collection of over 5,000 works.

Planning your visit

Beelden aan Zee is built into the dunes at Scheveningen, hidden behind a nineteenth-century royal pavilion that King William I had constructed as a seaside retreat. The museum architecture is largely below ground, opening onto a terrace with the North Sea beyond — sculpture displayed against sand, sky and water.

It is the only Dutch museum devoted entirely to modern and contemporary sculpture, with over 5,000 works covering the human figure as a persistent subject across twentieth and twenty-first century practice.

The best-known works are outside and free: Sprookjesbeelden aan Zee, Tom Otterness's fairy-tale figures scattered along the boulevard, which have become an unofficial emblem of Scheveningen and are climbed on constantly by children.

Scheveningen is The Hague's beach resort, twenty minutes from the city centre. Allow ninety minutes. The main booking is an entry ticket. Current availability is listed below.