The Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden City, the Netherlands, was declared as the European Museum of the Year 2019 on Saturday. 

The results were announced at the closing ceremony of the European Museum of the Year Awards (EMYA) in Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) capital Sarajevo.

"The exceptional public quality of this museum results from its artful approach to communicating science. Important and beautiful objects are interpreted using the latest technologies and personal stories of those driven by a passion for the pursuit of knowledge. The result is science with a human face, inspiring curiosity and amazement as well as engaging a wide public in debates on important scientific and ethical questions issues of our time," EMYA said on its official website.

During the closing ceremony, head of the European Union (EU) delegation to BiH Lars-Gunnar Wigemark said the conference is one of the most important events that return Sarajevo to the map of the European center.

"The conference has gathered museums from different parts of Europe, and museums are places where we are not only learning about the past but also giving an insight into the present and the future," Wigemark concluded.

During the four-day conference, "European Museum of the Year," experts from more than 100 European museums gathered in Sarajevo, exchanged experiences and discussed the role of museums.

The "War Childhood Museum" from BiH hosted the event together with the European Museum Forum, which worked on the implementation of the event themed "Innovation in European Museums."