The Museum Van Loon is housed in an elegant mansion first owned by Ferdinand Bol, who was a student of Rembrandt. Between 1884 and 1945 it was the property of the Van Loons, who were founders of the Dutch East India Company and one of the richest families in Amsterdam. Although this is a beautiful house with a double frontage and vast dimensions as befits the family's social standing, its grand rooms now have a vague air of neglect. Nevertheless, i'’s worth stopping by to see the style in which the Dutch aristocracy lived among the scores of family portraits (but not the ghastly modern ones by Katinka Lampe upstairs), the Louis XV furniture, and the marble staircase with its ornately curly brass balustrade. Out back, there is a formal knot garden that needs a good weeding and a coach house modeled on a Greek temple that houses a rudimentary cafe; there are occasional opera recitals in the gardens. If you're short on time, the Willet-Holthuysen Museum has more to offer in terms of content.