United Nations Headquarters to Stage Rijksmuseum's Slavery Exhibition in New York

Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands’ national museum of art and history, has revealed that its Slavery exhibition will go on display at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York. Originally conceived and mounted in Amsterdam in 2021, an adapted version of the exhibition will open to the public in the Visitors’ Lobby of the UN headquarters from 27 February to 30 March 2023.

The Rijksmuseum is mounting the exhibition in New York under the title Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery. It is hosted by the United Nations as part of the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. The exhibition is made possible in part by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN and the Dutch diplomatic mission in the United States. 

Taco Dibbits, General Director of the Rijksmuseum said: Recognising the continuing impact of slavery on world history is of great importance. We are very grateful to the United Nations for drawing attention to this important subject through the exhibition.

In New York, the ten stories integral to the original Slavery exhibition will be presented around one single object: wooden foot stocks known as a ‘tronco’ (derived from the Portuguese word for ‘tree trunk’). Several enslaved people at a time would be forced to have their ankles clamped in the holes to constrain them – to subject them to corporal punishment and to prevent them from escaping. This object symbolises the suppression of more than one million people who were shipped in from around the world and forced to work, whether on plantations, as craftspeople, in mines, in transportation or on military expeditions.

During the colonial era (1600-1900), under European rule parts of the Americas, Africa and Asia were colonised or used as trading posts. Millions of women, men and children were enslaved and shipped from Africa and Asia to distant destinations. They, their children and the many generations that followed were subjected to a system of forced labour that dehumanised, objectified and often subjected them to violence on the basis of their skin colour or religion. Colonial slavery was a legalised system in which people were reduced to tradable property. This form of slavery was abolished worldwide in the 19th century. Since then, successive international declarations have defined slavery as a crime against humanity.

The exhibition will include a talks programme on 29 and 30 March with speakers from the USA, the Caribbean and Europe, coming together to reflect on and discuss the relationship between museums, colonial history, societies and the future. The exhibition will also be made available in adapted form for display until 31 December 2024 at other UN offices worldwide.