“After 45 years I will also be a museum visitor next week. That’s how it pours.” A sober conclusion from Harry Tupan. Today, on his 67th birthday and the start of his retirement, he closes the door of the Drents Museum in Assen behind him. The building where he started as a trainee in 1980 and where he ends again 45 years later as general manager.
An eventful 45 years, in which he managed to bring high -profile exhibitions to Assen. “I am not so impressed by things. Why could something not come to Assen and to Amsterdam? My deep belief that Assen, that Drenthe matters, is the key to success,” concludes Tupan.
And so there was an exhibition about Harry Muskee, Egbert Streuer, the history of the Moluccans and caravan dwellers. Tupan managed to exhibit the visual arts and personal things of Frida Kahlo as the first museum in the world.
The Drents Museum really got the wind when it was possible in 2008 to bring the terracotta army from Xi’an to Assen. “I flew to Beijing for the negotiations. But first had to lunch and dinner. The next day again: again lunch and dinner. Good food, not, but I am far too impatient for that.”
Thanks to his impatience and guts, Tupan succeeds. The Terracottalgever came to Assen. “Suddenly thousands of visitors came a day! In the end 354,000 people visited the exhibition.” That exhibition showed that the Drents Museum was able to make large international exhibitions. “But a renovation was needed for that.”
In the meantime, the near -pensionado is working on its last farewell exhibition: Microkosmos – the world in a Wunderkammer. “The basis for this is the wonder that is deep in me. From childhood I have had that and I also see it in my 3-year-old grandson. If he sees something he has never seen before, then a kind of revelation will arise. I also want to transfer that to my museum visitors. Verwondering is not in your head, it is mainly in your heart.”
Tupan is very clear about the future. “I stay in the sector. Of course I will also cycle with my wife, but at some point you have been cycled out,” he winks.
And so Tupan does not yet understand the art of being able to miss. For example, he will take a seat on the Mondriaan Fund Supervisory Board, the Stimuleringsfonds voor de Visual Arts and Heritage. “I can’t do much else. One collects stamps and I do this.”
In the video below, Harry Tupan will take you in the new Microkosmos exhibition. He also talks about the impact of the roof of the golden helmet of Cotofenesti in January of this year. Does he ever see the valuable Romanian art pieces again?