# Closed Temporarily Is Not a Date > Twenty-two of the 271 museums in this archive are shut. Exactly one has a firm reopening date, and it belongs to a four-week maintenance closure. The multi-year rebuilds mostly have no date at all. > The Study - 2026-09-06 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/closed-temporarily-is-not-a-date/ ## Key points - Twenty-two of the 271 museums, palaces and libraries recorded in this archive are closed to the public. Exactly one of them, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, carries a reopening date this archive grades as firm, and that closure is four weeks long. Three others publish a date that is not firm. The remaining eighteen publish no date at all. - The phrase describes duration badly in both directions. The Mauritshuis is shut from 24 August to 20 September 2026 for maintenance and says so to the day. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam has been closed since 2019 and its own renovation page says the work will take no fewer than ten years to complete, without naming a reopening year. - Berlin published a date, and the date is a generation away. The Pergamonmuseum has been under refurbishment since 2013. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin state that the north wing and central building reopen on 4 June 2027, and that the south wing holding the main collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum will present its future display from 2037. - A published target that has passed is a worse guide than silence. The State Board of Antiquities and Heritage gave early 2026 for the National Museum of Iraq with renovation reported 90 per cent complete, and the museum was still described as closed by Iraq's own state news agency in February 2026. - Closure is not an abstraction for the objects in this archive. Four published records here sit inside museums that are currently shut, including Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Mauritshuis and the Weary Herakles at Antalya, whose holdings have been moved to temporary on-site storage while the building is rebuilt. ## A closed museum is still the answer to the question of where an object is ## Twenty-two museums here are shut, and one has a firm date ## The longest closures are the ones with no date ## Berlin published a date, and then published a second one thirteen years later ## A target that has passed is worse than no target ## What a closure does to the objects inside it ## How to read a closure line ## Why this archive is free to read The phrase closed temporarily is doing a job that no date could do, which is to keep an institution present in the public mind while it cannot be visited. That is a reasonable thing for a museum to want. It is not information, and it should not be read as any. Where a venue can say both ends of a closure it does, and the one venue here that says both ends is shut for four weeks. Anywhere else on this list, assume the closure will outlast whatever was announced when it began, and check the institution's own page in the week you plan to travel. ## Questions **How many museums in this archive are closed, and how many say when they will reopen?** Twenty-two of the 271 venues recorded here are closed to the public. One, the Mauritshuis, carries a reopening date this archive grades as firm. Three more publish a date that is not firm. The remaining eighteen publish no date at all. **When does the Pergamonmuseum reopen?** Partly on 4 June 2027. The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin state that the refurbished north wing and central building reopen on that date, bringing back the Pergamon Altar and the full display of the Museum fuer Islamische Kunst. The south wing, which holds the main collections of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, is given as 2037. The refurbishment began in 2013. **Why does a four-week closure get an exact date when a ten-year one does not?** Because a maintenance shutdown is scheduled work with a known scope, and a structural renovation is not. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been closed since 2019 and its own page says the work will take no fewer than ten years without naming a year, while the Mauritshuis gives both ends of a four-week closure to the day. **Can I still see an object if the museum holding it is open?** Not necessarily, and the two facts should be checked separately. Girl with a Pearl Earring is off display from 15 August to 4 October 2026 while it travels to Japan, a longer absence than the Mauritshuis closure of 24 August to 20 September that surrounds it. ## Sources - [1] Mauritshuis, The Hague, visitor information page. Read in the in-app browser on 6 September 2026 after direct fetches returned HTTP 403. States: from Monday 24 August through Sunday 20 September, the Mauritshuis will be closed to the public due to maintenance work; and: from Saturday 15 August through Sunday 4 October, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer will not be on display in the museum. - [2] Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, renovation page. Read 6 September 2026. States that the museum buildings have been closed since 2019 and that the renovation will take no fewer than ten years to complete, with asbestos removal and design work by Mecanoo described and no reopening year given. - [3] Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, news release of 4 May 2026, 'The Pergamonmuseum returns: Opening on June 4th 2027'. Read in the in-app browser on 6 September 2026. Source for the 4 June 2027 reopening of the north wing and central building, for the refurbishment having run since 2013 as the first comprehensive one in over 90 years, and for the south wing display given as 2037. - [4] Bayerische Staatsgemaeldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek page. Read 6 September 2026. States that the museum is undergoing major renovation and is therefore currently closed, directs visitors to the Staatliches Bauamt for updates, and gives no reopening date. The building closed in 2019. - [5] Iraqi News Agency (INA), report on the status of the National Museum of Iraq. Source for the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage target of early 2026 with renovation reported 90 per cent complete, and for the Ministry of Culture Tourism Authority statement of 9 February 2026 describing the museum as still closed. - [6] A2 News (Albania), report on the temporary closure of the National Art Gallery, citing the Ministry of Culture announcement of 18 October 2021 and its stated works duration of two years. - [7] London Museum, Smithfield project page. Source for the move from the London Wall building, closed 4 December 2022, into the Victorian General Market at Smithfield, and for the date of 28 November 2026 recorded in this archive as published but not firm. - [8] City of Johannesburg, media statement inviting stakeholder comment on Johannesburg Art Gallery redevelopment plans. Source for the redevelopment programme behind the gallery's closure and the July 2027 intention recorded here.