The prostitutes of Amsterdam's famous red-light district are the inspiration for a real-life, walk-through artwork on currently display just a few hundred metres from the real thing.

"This artwork has made a tour of the world, but this will be its first exhibition in Amsterdam," the curator of the city's Historical Museum, Annemie de Wildt, said. "It's like it has come home."

Entitled The Hoerengracht (the canal-side street of whores), the work of 13 metres long, four metres wide and three metres high was created by American artists Ed and Nancy Kienholz between 1983 and 1988 in Berlin.

It is a real-life reconstruction of a street on the red-light district. The street is gloomy, dimly lit with red and blue lamps, with polyester mannequins made to look like they are plying the trade from glass boxes.

Sitting and standing, dressed or nearly naked, the "prostitutes" put on their make-up, smoke and look out for clients.

"It is a personal interpretation of the red-light district" of Amsterdam in the 1980s, Mr Kienholz told a media preview of the exhibit.

Prostitutes of today have "an institutional look" compared to the 1980s when the artwork was made, Mr Kienholz reminisced. "Nowadays they all look the same."

The work was previously exhibited at the National Gallery in London.