Next to the De Nollen nature reserve in Den Helder, the concrete carcass of a future museum has been decaying for a long time. The plan to build the Rudi van de Wint Museum there has been on hold since 2015. “There is no more money.”
There are a hundred paintings that could fill the walls of the future museum. “And even those paintings can still be changed,” says Gijs van de Wint. After the death of his father Rudi, he lives and works in the nature reserve and has been working on the construction of the new museum for years. Unfortunately, construction is stopped in 2015 because there is no more money. “We are about eight million short.”
“It looks a bit sad now”
A lot still needs to be done to finish the large museum, which consists of three rooms. The building consists only of concrete walls with not even a roof everywhere. “It looks a bit sad now,” said Van de Wint.
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Construction of Helder’s museum comes to a standstill due to a deficit of eight million euros
In order to be able to continue building the museum, despite the help of the municipality of Den Helder and various funds, help is needed from investors. Because by selling tickets alone, the target amount will not be achieved. But that sales also decreased due to corona. “The visitor numbers rose nicely before that, but that has stagnated due to corona,” says Gijs.
‘good hope’
It will therefore remain a difficult time for Gijs and his colleagues for the time being. “It is a pity that the museum is not there yet, but we are hopeful that it will eventually come,” he says. He continues: “I am still very proud. It is and remains a very special project.”
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