Louwman Museum

The collection consists of around 275 cars and other vehicles. ^[3] It was founded in 1934 with the purchase of a 20-year-old Dodge by Dodge importer Pieter Louwman, the father of the current owner. In 1969, the collection of Mr. Geerlig Riemer was added. Riemer was also founder of the Institute for Automotive and Management (IVA) in Driebergen. The building which used to house Riemer's collection has since been used as a practical center for the IVA.

In 1969 the collection was moved to Leidschendam to the newly opened National Automobile Museum. In 1981 the museum was moved to a new location on the property of importer Louwman & Parqui in Raamsdonksveer. On 18 April 2003 the name "Louwman Collection" was adopted.

On 3 July 2010 the current museum in The Hague, named Louwman Museum, was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, whose former home Huis ten Bosch neighbours the museum.^[4] The current owner of the collection is Evert Louwman, the Dutch importer of Lexus, Toyota, and Suzuki. ^[5]

The Louwman Museum is housed in a building with three floors and over 10,000 m² of exhibition space, on The Hague's Leidsestraatweg. It was specifically designed as a museum by Driehaus Prize winner Michael Graves, a New Classical American architect. Incorporating a view of the surrounding environment was an important part of the large-scale design.^[6] Landscape architect Louis Baljon designed the layout of the park encircling the building.^[7]

Evert Louwman is the brother of Jan Louwman, owner of the former Wassenaar Zoo, which closed in 1985. The zoo used to have a gate with two brick pillars on which two lions stood. This old gate became the entrance to the new museum.