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The National Museum of Finland opened to the public in 1916. Its management also oversees activities in nine other museums, including two medieval castles, a prison, an Imperial fishing lodge, an open-air museum, the Maritime Museum of Finland, and several house museums. The National Museum has the largest cultural history collections in Finland from prehistoric times to the present day. It also has a small collection of Dutch and Flemish art: two noteworthy altarpieces and three wooden sculptures of saints from before 1500, around twenty paintings, prints, a decorative arts section with dozens of objects such as Dutch ceramics, tiles, urns and vases, brass snuff boxes from the eighteenth century, clay pipes, coins, small silver objects, weapons, intact tapestries, and tapestry fragments. The museum’s highlights include an altarpiece made in Brussels in ca. 1470 with an image of Calvary and Scenes from the Passion of Christ, with Saints, the Virgin Mary, and God. Objects salvaged from the shipwrecked Dutch vessel Vrouw Maria are on display at the Maritime Museum of Finland in Kotka. The collection has grown through donations and acquisitions.

Dr. Minerva Keltanen, Head of Exhibitions, and Jouni Kuurne, Research and Curator of Collections (August 2023)