What does a boat seized from the Italian island of Lampedusa, a piece of the Berlin Wall, two giant bright blue slippers and a New York City bus made of fabric have in common with paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger and Willem de Kooning? They all vie for space in a new museum, opening this week in Rotterdam, which focuses entirely on migration, the movement of peoples that defines each century of humanity and which in recent years has acquired a new political toxicity.
Situated over two floors in what was one of the largest warehouses in the world, it is the centrepiece of a regeneration project in Katendrecht, the city’s southern docks and former red-light district that is redolent with history. Across the water, now a hotel, stood the headquarters of the Holland America Line, which transported thousands of Dutchmen and women to America and Canada to start afresh in the New World. In recent decades, most of the traffic to Europe’s largest port has been in the opposite direction. Rotterdam is now home to 170 nationalities.
