The Cat Cabinet

The Cat Cabinet, known in Dutch as the Kattenkabinet, is a singular museum on the Herengracht canal in Amsterdam dedicated entirely to art depicting cats. Housed in a grand seventeenth-century canal house, the collection was founded by Bob Meijer in memory of his beloved ginger tom, John Pierpont Morgan, and has grown into one of the city's most distinctive cultural addresses. Works by Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Sal Meijer hang alongside posters, sculptures, and decorative objects, all united by the feline subject.

The canal house itself is part of the experience: its period rooms, ornate ceilings, and garden provide an intimate setting that larger Amsterdam institutions cannot replicate. Several resident cats roam the building freely, giving the collection an atmosphere that is as lived-in as it is scholarly. Entry tickets are available for the permanent collection, making the Kattenkabinet an accessible stop for visitors exploring the historic canal belt.