Now on display: ‘OPIUM’

'OPIUM, the government as dealer'

The 18th of November marked the opening of the new contemporary exhibition ‘OPIUM’, the government as dealer.

The exhibition was officially opened by Director of Rotterdam Port Customs, Peter van Buijtenen and can be seen until August 31, 2025.

Step into the world of Opium and discover how the Dutch built an opium empire, with far-reaching consequences. The exhibition literally takes you back in time. To the heroin epidemic at the end of the last century here in Rotterdam and even further back to the 17th century, when the VOC started the trade in raw opium. The Dutch traded opium for years and even had its own opium factory in Batavia. From purchasing to production and from sales to distribution, the entire chain was once fully in the hands of the Dutch State. Did you know that opium was a legal product in the Netherlands until 1919?

The exhibition tells stories about:

• The legal and illegal trade in opium through the centuries.
• The importance of the opium trade for the state treasury.
• The use of opium and the development of medicine into an addictive drug.

For the English exhibition texts, click here.