Golden Carriage to be displayed in Amsterdam Museum after restoration

The Golden Carriage will be part of an Amsterdam Museum exhibition titled 'Golden Carriage - Gift of Amsterdam' next year, the government announced. The exhibition is set to open in June and will be on display until November 2021.

The Golden Carriage was given to Queen Wilhelmina by the residents of Amsterdam in 1898, when she was inaugurated at the age of 18. Over 1,200 craftsmen worked on the carriage, including children who lived in the Burgerweeshuis orphanage - the current location of the Amsterdam museum. They helped to embroider the pillows in the carriage.

The carriage is currently being restored, a process that started in 2016. The fully restored carriage will be placed in a glass enclosure in the courtyard of the Amsterdam Museum for the exhibition.

The exhibition will include a broad public program, in which participants can "participate in a discussion about a variety of themes related to the Golden Carriage as Dutch cultural heritage," the government said. The "different perspectives of history"  will also be paid attention to.

A few years ago, the Golden Carriage joined blackface Zwarte Piet in the center of the debate around racism and tradition in the Netherlands. Depictions of Black people on the Golden Carriage have caused controversy multiple times in past years, with action groups calling for the carriage to be retired to a museum where context can be given to these images. 

In 2015, the Glass Carriage was also displayed to the public after being restored.