Intentionele willekeur. Het ongeschreven verwervingsbeleid van Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser

The Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser is a private heritage organization established in 1918, the same year that saw the founding of the Rijksbureau voor Monumentenzorg, the forerunner of today’s Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed (Cultural Heritage Agency). The organization is dedicated to the preservation of historically valuable buildings in the Netherlands, which it does by purchasing and managing such properties. Hendrick de Keyser was not bound by government policy and went its own way in the matter of acquisition. Thus, an analysis of its acquisition strategies can supplement our knowledge of heritage protection and reveal to what extent private heritage protection developed in tandem with or separately from government policy.  Decisions on acquisitions were made by the board and since the association never formulated specific rules for this purpose, an analysis of acquisition practice is best done via a study of the properties and their descriptions in minutes, annual reports and anniversary publications. This article analyses the association’s properties from three perspectives: the grounds for acquisition as published in annual reports and board reports, the dating of the properties and the typology. No clear-cut periods in acquisitions policy emerge from this three-pronged analysis. Several elements do, however, stand out. A recurrent theme with respect to argumentation is the building’s importance in the townscape or its visually defining features. Around the time of the association’s founding, this was probably due to the frenzied demolition and redevelopment taking place around the country; after the Second World War to the consequences of the Wederopbouwwet (Reconstruction Act), which tore great holes in the fabric of the historical city centres. The analysis based on dating and typology leads to similar conclusions in relation to wider developments in heritage protection. In addition to an analysis of the properties themselves, it is necessary to take account of other likely influences on acquisition practice, such as the association’s financial situation. For example, Hendrick de Keyser does not buy on the open market; acquisitions have usually taken the form of private purchases supported by external financing from various funds, or of bequests and gifts. The influence of individual board members also needs to be considered: the presence on the board of prominent art/architecture historians and architects inevitably affected acquisition practice. Based on this information, comparisons were made with government policy. It transpires that Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser and other organizations generally developed side by side and many parallels can be drawn between the various parties. There is evidence of cross-fertilization and of contemporaneous but divergent developments, both of which influenced national heritage policy