Acquisitions

For whom

The Individual Acquisitions Grant is intended for Dutch museums and other cultural heritage institutions, possibly in collaboration with other heritage institutions, which want to acquire special items or partial collections in any field, ranging from contemporary art and crafts to ancient manuscripts and natural history collections.

For what

The grant is intended for a purchase that will enrich the collection of the Netherlands Institute of Cultural Heritage and which will be displayed to the public permanently or semi-permanently. The grant also applies to purchases subject to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act.

The aim is to increase the quality and profile of the Dutch National Cultural Heritage Collection.

How much

The size of the Individual Acquisitions Grant will be determined on a per-application basis. The maximum grant awarded by the Mondriaan Fund is 40 percent of the estimated value of the acquisition.

Apply

Applications for an Individual Acquisitions Grant can be submitted through the Mondriaan Fund’s online application system, for which you need an account. With your account you can access the application form, where you can fill in the questions and upload the information requested in the checklist below. Click here for the FAQ (in Dutch) about online applications.

Applications for an Individual Acquisitions Grant can be submitted throughout the year. Applicants must allow for a total processing period of a maximum of three months from the moment the application is complete. However, due to the many applications to the fund, the processing time can take longer than expected. Grants from the Mondriaan Fund cannot be awarded with retroactive effect, which is why the application must be submitted well before the desired starting date. Exceptionally, an application may be submitted later, if, for instance, the purchase has an urgent nature. In case of exceptions, please contact the contact person of this grant to discuss the possibilities.

Conditions

• The application procedure is open to publicly accessible Dutch institutions that are in charge of museum collections of national or international significance.
• When a museum submits an application, it is registered in the museum register.
• Grants cannot be used for acquisitions which institutions can be reasonably expected to fund from their regular budgets.
• Museums which receive a Collection Programme Grant must explain in their applications why they are unable to fund the acquisition from their Collection Programme budget.
• The application must include a provenance research, in which the periode around World War II must play an imporant part, if applicable.
• Individual Acquisitions Grants cannot be used to fund constructional provisions, the preservation of listed buildings, the excavation of archaeological objects or passive conservation. Nor can they be used to document the institution’s collection.
• The estimated value of the object must exceed €50,000.
• The institution must be willing to loan the object to other Dutch institutions and must act in accordance with the reciprocity principle. This means that it will not charge Dutch museums a fee for having the object in loan and that it will do its utmost to minimise direct costs such as transport, insurance and packaging (handling fee).
• The acquisition will remain part of the Dutch National Cultural Heritage Collection for a long time and its ownership will not be transferred without the Mondriaan Fund’s authorisation.
• The preservation of the acquired object will be safeguarded through proper constructional provisions, climate control and security measures.
• The applicant will make a significant financial contribution to the acquisition of the object itself.
• Please be advised that grants exceeding €500,000 are rarely awarded. Applicants who require a substantial grant are advised to contact the Mondriaan Fund. You cannot apply for the Acquisition grant for objects worth more than €1 million which were on the former list as published by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act. For those objects you can contact the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science directly. The grant application is more likely to be successful if the applicant has raised some funds itself by means of a crowd-funding campaign, e.g. through voordekunst.nl.
• The applicant is required to provide an insight into the processes involved in the establishment of the purchasing price, which may or may not involve a discussion of the following items: How did the market value of the acquisition come about? How was the amount determined? In this way, museums can demonstrate, for instance, that they spent a long time cultivating a relationship with the seller. Was the purchasing price subject to negotiations, and if so, what was the result of these negotiations?
• If the Mondriaan Fund chooses to appoint a representative of an auction house to the advisory committee, the museum will not be allowed to request an appraisal or countercheck from the same auction house.
• Privately owned museums can only apply for a grant if their articles of association state that their collection or the object concerned belongs to the publicly accessible Dutch National Cultural Heritage Collection.
• The acquisition will be displayed to the public at once or as soon as possible.

Assessment

All applications that comply with the formal conditions and that have been submitted with the requested annexes will be presented to a committee which will issue recommendations on the allocation of an Individual Acquisitions Grant.

Generally speaking, grant applications are more likely to be successful if they are submitted by two or more parties. One of the aspects which will be assessed is whether the collaboration will create added value for the plan.

Final assessment

Applicants are only eligible for an Individual Acquisitions Grant if the advisory committee issues a positive recommendation regarding the above criteria. Such a positive recommendation may come with a recommendation on the sum to be awarded as a grant. For budgetary reasons, the Mondriaan Fund’s board may request the advisory committee to weigh the applications against each other and rank the positive recommendations in order of priority.

Checklist

In the online application form you must upload the requested information as a PDF. We advise you to formulate and collate this information before you fill out the form. We additionally request you to answer various questions, including questions for evaluation purposes.