NEW YORK, NY.- At the invitation of the United Nations, the Rijksmuseum has staged a special version of its acclaimed Slavery exhibition first seen in Amsterdam in 2021. In New York, the ten personal stories from the original exhibition will be presented around a single object from the Rijksmuseum collection: wooden foot stocks (c. 1700-1850). Used during the Dutch colonial period, several people could be constrained in foot stocks like these as corporal punishment to prevent them from fleeing. 

For the conclusion of the exhibition on 30 March, the Rijksmuseum will organise a keynote discussion about 'museums and the colonial past' with experts from the United States, the Caribbeans and Europe, hosted by the UN in the ECOSOC Chamber at the UN. Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson will be the featured speaker.

The exhibition Slavery. Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery is hosted by the United Nations as part of the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. The exhibition is made possible in part by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN and the Dutch diplomatic mission in the United States. The exhibition will also be made available in adapted form for display until 31 December 2024 at other UN offices worldwide.

The Rijksmuseum’s Slavery exhibition of 2021 was made possible in part by the Mondriaan Fund, Blockbusterfonds, Fonds 21, DutchCulture, Democracy & Media Foundation, Stichting Thurkowfonds, Boomerang Agency and via the Rijksmuseum Fund: Scato Gockinga Fonds, Fonds de Zuidroute, Zusjes Nieuwbeerta Fonds, Fonds Dirk Jan van Orden, Henry M. Holterman Fonds and Bestuursfonds Hollandse Meesters.