Curaçao Maritime Museum

This historical mansion building circa 1729, has been restored and is now home to the Curacao Maritime Museum. There is a good Cuban Café Bar upstairs which looks over the waterfront.

Open - 10.30-15.30 daily except Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. 

The Museum offers an insight into the colourful grain of Curacao’s maritime history.
None the least is the somewhat zany tradition of the Dutch Navy to embark on a never ending odyssey of petty thievery, whereby they are forced to retrieve (aka steal) a revered ships figurehead called the ‘Painted Lady’, allegedly from a historical Navy vessel that sank in Willemstad Harbour.
The said figurehead is currently available for viewing at the museum… but the tradition exists that the Navy takes her back at any available opportunity, gives her a new lick of paint, and then merrily returns her to her home when the authorities come knocking at the door. The figurehead has been stolen from a private house and a secure bank vault in its time and now awaits its future fate at the maritime museum.