The Kremer Collection: Shaping the Digital Future of Old Masters

For George and Ilone Kremer, collecting art has been an enlightening and rewarding journey. “Most importantly,” says George, “it brings us together as a family.”

Over the past 30 years, the Kremers have assembled a remarkable collection of Dutch and Flemish 17th-century art, with a notable strength in the Northern Caravaggisti school. It includes seascapes, landscapes, portraits, still lifes, domestic scenes, and biblical and mythological scenes by such celebrated names as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Pieter de Hooch. It also contains works by lesser-known artists whom the Kremers believe deserve a larger audience, among them Abraham Bloemaert, Michael Sweerts, and Michaelina Wautier. “We first fell for Dutch art because it is part of our heritage and culture, and the focus on everyday subjects appealed to us,” says George. “We concentrate on works that are high quality, beautiful, and have interesting stories.” 

The Kremers’ passion for and knowledge of Dutch and Flemish art has deepened over the years. “Neither of us come from collecting families, so we started from scratch,” shares George. “To really understand this field, you have to study it.” So that is what they did. In addition to reading countless publications on the subject, George and Ilone have visited auctions, art fairs, and galleries around the world to develop their eye. “When it comes to making up our mind on a new painting, Ilone and I are very complementary,” he adds. “I enjoy spending days researching in our library, whereas Ilone is very intuitive. We have also been very fortunate to have had some excellent teachers.”

One such teacher was Robert Noortman, a leading Old Masters dealer who “lit a fire within us,” says George. “He taught us to really look at paintings and trust our own judgment.” Following the Kremers’ first purchase in 1995—a small oil sketch of a bearded man by Govaert Flinck—the collection, as George puts it, expanded “rather quickly.” Their second purchase was a lively scene of Bacchus with musicians by Theodoor Rombouts; while their third, a portrait initially attributed to Jacques des Rousseaux, turned out to be a genuine Rembrandt. With their eyes currently set on their 98th work, it seems the Kremers are in no hurry to slow down. “The collection is our life’s work,” explains George. “We love the chase and thrill of discovery too much to stop.” 

As their collection expanded, George and Ilone became increasingly committed to sharing it with as many people as possible, through exhibitions, an external loans program, and their pioneering digital channels. “We want to share with people what makes these works so beautiful and important,” says George. Talk turns to the influence of the Dutch Old Masters on British painters like Turner and Constable, as well as on the French Impressionists, particularly in their treatment of light. “Each generation of artists has taken something from the previous one,” he adds. “Teaching people to discover connections between artistic movements through our collection is wonderful.”

As well as loaning works to prestigious museums, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and The National Gallery in London, the Kremers, together with George’s son Joël, run the Kremer Museum, the world’s first virtual reality museum. Designed by renowned architect Johan van Lierop and built by the acclaimed virtual reality developer Moyosa Media in 2017, the Kremer Museum showcases 74 works from the collection installed across five perfectly lit virtual galleries. In 2024, a freely accessible version of the museum was integrated into the Kremer Collection website, enabling a larger audience to enjoy the works on display. The very precise 3D technology that was used to capture and digitally reproduce the paintings combined with the bespoke zoom viewer allow visitors to discover spectacular surface details, while the audio tour explains the art historical as well as personal context of the works. “We realised our impact as collectors would reach far more widely by investing in technology for cultural heritage than in bricks and mortar,” says George. 

It was Joël’s involvement in emerging technologies that spurred the Kremers to apply pioneering digital innovations to the registration and showcasing of art so early on. “I was always aware of the collection,” says Joël, who has a background in the tech sector and joined Moyosa Media as partner in 2018 after the successful realisation of the museum, “but I developed a much deeper appreciation of the art when we decided to develop a website with freely accessible high-resolution images of the collection back in 2007.” He cites “tweaking” google maps technology to create a zoom tool for the paintings on the website as a turning point. “It was only then that I began to really look up close at the paintings,” he says. “I discovered details that I hadn’t seen before because in a museum it’s often too dark or the work is behind glass.” 

The Kremers are committed to staying at the forefront of digital developments. “We keep innovating to find exciting and original ways to tell the story,” says Joël. To this end, he is looking at new tools that could make their collection even more engaging, accessible, and immersive. “We want to treat emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence very respectfully,” he says, explaining that an artificially altered smile or a tear could completely change the mood of a portrait. “There are instances, though, when AI can add a playful touch.” A winter landscape, for example, could be the starting point for a video that takes you skating on ice through the whole village. 

What have they enjoyed most about collaborating on the collection and museum as a family? “Trusting Joël with all things digital,” says George. “Having parents who are willing to listen to me about new ideas and take a shot at them,” says Joël. Another upside has been the bountiful opportunities for talk, travel, and exchange across generations. “My nine-year-old daughter loves visiting museums with my father,” he adds. Such is her interest in the collection that she has recorded the voiceover for the kids’ audio tour for the current exhibition of works from the Kremer Collection at the Stedelijk Museum in Alkmaar (through June 1, 2025). Highlights on display include Rembrandt’s Bust of an Old Man with Turban (1627-28), Aelbert Cuyp’s River Landscape with Seven Cows (c. 1648), and A Young Maidservant (c. 1660) by Michael Sweerts, which has been widely compared to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665). “It fills me with such pride that my granddaughter is already so involved,” says George. 

So what is the future of the collection? “Keep it in the family,” says George adamantly. “We’re very grateful that Joël has seen the light.” He acknowledges, however, that managing and caring for such a collection “can be a huge burden and a lot of responsibility,” which is why it is important “to find ways for it to be self-sustaining in the long term.” How do they propose to do that? “Joël’s working on it,” says George, with a smile. As for the Kremer Museum, “it would be wonderful to reach one million people a year,” says Joël. “That would put us in the top 100 museums in the world.” No doubt, they’ll achieve their goal one click at a time.

Presented in partnership with AXA XL, TEFAF’s Collecting Across Generations series investigates the histories and approaches behind family collections—how a passion for art is transferred from one generation to the next; how this influences collecting habits, tastes, and interests; and the ways in which families engage with the stewardship of established collection. During TEFAF Maastricht 2025, George Kremer and Joël Kremer participated in the TEFAF Talk; Multigenerational Collecting: Carrying on the Legacy of the Kremer Collection Through Virtual Reality, exploring the Kremer family’s multigenerational approach to collecting as a family endeavor.