News of: Wednesday, June 14 2006,

Free entrance to National Museums for Dutch nationals

Parliament has passed a law that entitles Dutch citizens to free entrance to all National Museums.

After many debates in Parliament, a coalition of Liberals, Social Democrats and the Socialist Party forced the Minister of Culture (Medy van der Laan) to adopt a law to this effect.
The parties in favour have the opinion that all Dutch citizens should have free access to the national cultural heritage.

All Dutch people will receive a cultural passport which will give free entrance to the core collection of the museums. The pass will give access to the core collection (special exhibitions are an exception).

There is still doubt about whether the law will survive under European Union legislation, which prohibits discrimination between EU nationals on the basis of nationality.

It is not yet clear which exact museums are covered by the new pass. According to Wikipedia the following list of 17 musems are the National Museums:

Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum
Amsterdam: Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum)
Apeldoorn: Paleis het Loo Nationaal Museum
Arnhem: Nederlands Openluchtmuseum
Den Haag: Mauritshuis
Den Haag: Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
Dordrecht: Dordrechts Museum
Enkhuizen: Het Zuiderzeemuseum
Enschede: Rijksmuseum Twenthe
Leiden: Het Koninklijk Penningkabinet
Leiden: Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde
Leiden: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
Leiden: Museum Boerhaave
Leiden: Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis
Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum
Utrecht: Museum Catharijneconvent

According to the Vereniging van Rijksgesubsidieerde Musea (Association of state subsidized museums) the following should also be included:

Berg en Dal: Afrika Museum
Amsterdam: Hollandse Schouwburg
Doorn: Huis Doorn
Amsterdam: Jewish Historical Museum
Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum
Leeuwarden: Museum Het Princessehof
Poederoijen: Museum Slot Loevestein
Haarlem: Teylers Museum