Rijksmuseum

aid: rijksmuseum
name: Rijksmuseum
description: >-
  Rijksmuseum is the Dutch national museum dedicated to Dutch arts and history,
  located in Amsterdam. Its RijksData open-data programme exposes more than
  800,000 collection object metadata records, 600,000+ public-domain images,
  320,000 bibliographic records, 160,000 actor / institution records, and 70,000
  controlled-vocabulary terms through a family of JSON-based REST APIs, an
  OAI-PMH harvesting endpoint, IIIF tile services, and linked-data dumps.
url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/
image: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/assets/site/img/logo.png
specificationVersion: '0.20'
created: '2026-05-28'
modified: '2026-05-29'
x-type: opensource
x-source: public-apis/public-apis
x-category: "Art & Design"
x-tier: 2
x-tier-reason: museum-open-data-with-api-key-and-rich-public-domain-content
x-governance: open-data
x-license-policy: cc0-or-public-domain-for-most-images
tags:
  - Art And Design
  - Museums
  - Cultural Heritage
  - Open Data
  - Linked Data
  - OAI-PMH
  - IIIF
  - Dutch Heritage
  - Public APIs
apis:
  - name: Collection Search API
    description: >-
      Returns a paginated list of objects in the Rijksmuseum collection. Mirrors
      the museum's own advanced-search experience and supports rich filters by
      maker, type, material, technique, century, dominant colour, image
      availability, and top-piece status. Results are language-localised via the
      culture path segment (`nl` or `en`) and capped at 10,000 objects per query
      (page * pageSize <= 10,000).
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
    tags:
      - Collection
      - Search
      - Art And Design
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/rijksmuseum-collection-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/rijksmuseum-art-object-summary-schema.json
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/collection-collection.yaml

  - name: Collection Details API
    description: >-
      Returns the full record for a single object identified by its
      object-number (e.g. `SK-C-5`). Includes title, descriptions, principal
      maker biography, dating, dimensions, materials, techniques, classification
      (Iconclass), colours, plaque text in both Dutch and English, acquisition
      history, exhibitions, and the web image with offset percentages.
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
    tags:
      - Collection
      - Object Details
      - Art And Design
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/rijksmuseum-collection-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/rijksmuseum-art-object-schema.json
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/collection-object-details.yaml

  - name: Collection Image Tiles API
    description: >-
      Returns a tile-pyramid description for an object's web image to power deep
      zoom experiences (the same scheme used on rijksmuseum.nl). Each level (z0
      to z6) lists tile URLs with x/y coordinates and the level's total
      width/height. JSON-only.
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
    tags:
      - Collection
      - Images
      - Deep Zoom
      - IIIF Adjacent
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/rijksmuseum-collection-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/rijksmuseum-image-tiles-schema.json
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/collection-images.yaml

  - name: Usersets API
    description: >-
      Lists user-generated sets ("Rijksstudio sets") of objects curated by
      Rijksstudio members. Each set has an owner, name, slug, object count, and
      created/updated timestamps. Useful for surfacing community-curated mini
      exhibitions and personal collections.
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/user-generated-content/api/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
    tags:
      - User Generated Content
      - Sets
      - Rijksstudio
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/user-generated-content/api/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/rijksmuseum-user-sets-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/rijksmuseum-user-set-summary-schema.json
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/user-sets-user-generated-content.yaml

  - name: Userset Details API
    description: >-
      Returns the full contents of a single Rijksstudio set including the
      owner profile, the ordered list of set items (each linking to a Collection
      object and image), and crop metadata for cover images.
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/user-generated-content/api/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api
    tags:
      - User Generated Content
      - Sets
      - Rijksstudio
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/user-generated-content/api/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/rijksmuseum-user-sets-openapi.yml
      - type: JSONSchema
        url: json-schema/rijksmuseum-user-set-schema.json
      - type: NaftikoCapability
        url: capabilities/user-sets-user-generated-content.yaml

  - name: OAI-PMH Harvesting API
    description: >-
      Standards-based bulk harvesting endpoint implementing the Open Archives
      Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH 2.0). Supports
      ListRecords, GetRecord, ListMetadataFormats, ListSets, and ListIdentifiers
      verbs across the Dublin Core (dc), Europeana Data Model (edm_dc), and
      LIDO metadata formats. Use this — not the Collection Search API — to
      mirror more than 600,000 object records beyond the 10,000-object search
      ceiling.
    humanURL: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/harvest/
    baseURL: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/api/oai
    tags:
      - OAI-PMH
      - Harvesting
      - Bulk Data
      - Dublin Core
      - Europeana
      - LIDO
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/harvest/
      - type: CodeExamples
        url: https://github.com/Q42/SimpleOAIHarvester
        title: SimpleOAIHarvester Reference Script

common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://rijksmuseum.github.io/
    title: Legacy API Documentation (Archived)
  - type: GitHubOrganization
    url: https://github.com/Rijksmuseum
  - type: SignUp
    url: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio
    title: Rijksstudio Account For API Key
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/object-metadata/api/#access-to-apis
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/rijksmuseum-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rijksmuseum-rate-limits.yml
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/data/policy
    title: Information And Data Policy
  - type: License
    url: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
    title: Public Domain Mark For Most Object Images
  - type: License
    url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    title: CC-BY For Photography Of The Building And Modern Works
  - type: Knowledge
    url: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/data/policy
    title: Open Data Policy
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/rijksmuseum-vocabulary.yml
  - type: Discovery
    url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/controlled-vocabularies/
    title: Controlled Vocabularies (Actors, Places, Concepts, Events)
  - type: Discovery
    url: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/bibliographic-data/
    title: SRU Bibliographic Catalogue
  - type: Integrations
    url: https://lido-schema.org/
    title: LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects)
  - type: Integrations
    url: https://pro.europeana.eu/edm-documentation
    title: Europeana Data Model (EDM)
  - type: Integrations
    url: https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/
    title: Dublin Core
  - type: Integrations
    url: https://linked.art/
    title: Linked Art
  - type: Integrations
    url: https://iiif.io/
    title: IIIF
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/Rijksmuseum/aio_oai_repo
    title: aio_oai_repo — Configurable OAI-PMH Repository Library (Python)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/r-huijts/rijksmuseum-mcp
    title: MCP Server (Community — Artwork Exploration And Analysis)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/kintopp/rijksmuseum-mcp-plus
    title: MCP Server (Community — Semantic Search, Provenance, Similarity, Spatial Reasoning)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/kintopp/rijksmuseum-mcp-client
    title: MCP Client (Community — Web Client For MCP+ Server)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/lwsinclair/rijksmuseum-mcp-oaipmh
    title: MCP Server (Community — OAI-PMH Harvesting)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/kintopp/rijksmuseum-iconclass-mcp
    title: MCP Server (Community — Iconclass Semantic Search)
  - type: Tools
    url: https://github.com/chandhoke/archival-imagery-mcp
    title: MCP Server (Community — Multi-Museum Imagery, Includes Rijksmuseum)
  - type: SDK
    url: https://github.com/hay/rijksmuseumapi
    title: PHP Client (Community)
  - type: SDK
    url: https://github.com/yutongquan/rijksmuseum_py
    title: Python Client (Community)
  - type: CodeExamples
    url: https://github.com/Q42/SimpleOAIHarvester
    title: SimpleOAIHarvester — Reference Harvester Script

maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: [email protected]