01/11/2025

The Louwman Museum, formerly the National Automobile Museum and the Louwman Collection, is a museum housing historic cars, coaches, and motorcycles located in The Hague, Netherlands.

 

The collection, comprising over two hundred vehicles, was started in 1934 by the Louwman family. The collection was founded in 1934 with the purchase of a Dodge by Dodge importer Pieter Louwman, the father of the current owner.

 

The current owner of the collection is Evert Louwman, the Dutch importer of Lexus, Toyota, and Suzuki. In 1969, the collection was moved to the National Automobile Museum in Leidschendam. In 1981, the museum moved to a new location in Raamsdonksveer. On April 18, 2003, it was renamed the "Louwman Collection."

 

The Louwman Museum is housed in a three-story building with an exhibition space of over 10,000 m² on Leidsestraatweg in The Hague. It was specifically designed as a museum by Michael Graves. Landscape architect Louis Baljon designed the park surrounding the building.

 

At the entrance, there is a gate with two brick pillars, on which stood two lions from the former Wassenaar Zoo, which closed in 1985.

 

The collection consists of over 230 automobiles. The museum has one of the largest collections of vehicles dating from 1910 onwards. The museum displays a large collection of cars from the Dutch Spyker brand and the only surviving Eysink (a car brand from Amersfoort). In the former Raamsdonksveer museum, these Dutch cars were exhibited in the so-called "Trompenburg Square" with the original fence of the Spyker factory dismantled in 1993.

 

The collection also includes several prestigious racing cars such as an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Lungo Spider Le Mans Touring, a Maserati 300S, a Ferrari 750 Monza, a Lancia D23, two Lagondas that took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Jaguar D-Type of Ecurie Ecosse that won it in 1957. The collection also contains various prototypes, concept cars, and one-offs such as the Abarth 209A Boano Coupé, the Pegaso Z-102 Cupula, and the Fiat 8V Demon Rouge Vignale and the Maserati Medici Italdesign, designed by Giovanni Michelotti and Giorgetto Giugiaro, respectively.

 

There are also a number of cars that belonged to famous people, such as the Humber used by Winston Churchill, the Aston Martin DB5 driven by James Bond in the film Goldfinger, and a Cadillac customized for Elvis Presley. The museum also displays a large collection of paintings and drawings by Frederick Gordon Crosby.