Vermeer shines at 'once in history' Amsterdam show

Yahoo – AFP, Danny Kemp, February 7, 2023 

The Dutch master Johannes Vermeer himself never got the chance to see so many of his paintings in the same place. 

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has brought together 28 of Vermeer's luminous masterpieces from around the world, in the largest-ever exhibition of the 17th century artist's works. 

Curators hope the blockbuster show, featuring some three-quarters of his modest output of around 35 paintings, will also shed light on the enigmatic creator of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Milkmaid". 

"Never in history have 28 paintings by Vermeer been gathered," Rijksmuseum General Director Taco Dibbits told AFP at a preview. 

"He didn't even see that many together himself." 

Famed for their use of light and colour and their tranquil yet haunting indoor scenes, Vermeer's paintings practically shine from the walls of the dimmed galleries at the Rijksmuseum. 

The works have been brought from museums and collections around the world, including Washington, New York, Tokyo, London, Paris, Dublin. 

"It's a very happy reunion," said Dibbits. 

Interest is so intense that the Rijksmuseum has already sold 200,000 tickets for the exhibition, which opens on Friday until June 4, the most ever for one of its shows. 

'Wonderful' 

Part of the appeal is the mystery surrounding the man often called the  "Sphinx of Delft". 

Vermeer (1632-1675) was born into a family of Calvinist traders but converted to Catholicism after marrying a wealthy woman with whom he had 11 children. 

But there are very few records of his life, and compared to Dutch "Golden Age" artists such as Rembrandt his work languished in obscurity, until a reappraisal in the 19th century. 

Vermeer rose to megastar status with the publication of the novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by US author Tracy Chevalier, based on the painting that has been loaned for the exhibition by the Mauritshuis in The Hague. 

The book also spawned a 2003 Hollywood movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. 

"Wonderful, it's wonderful," Chevalier told AFP after viewing the exhibition. 

"I'm so glad people are going to see these paintings together and build a picture for themselves of what Vermeer was," said the author. 

Most of Vermeer's works focus on women, often caught in the midst of acts like writing a letter or playing a musical instrument, and Chevalier said he was "just presenting women in the best possible light, literally and figuratively". 

Her favourite in the exhibition -- apart from "Girl with a Pearl Earring", of course -- was "The Lacemaker", a tiny work of exquisite beauty loaned by The Louvre in Paris, she said. 

'Time stands still' 

Highlights also include three works from the Frick Collection in New York, the newly restored "Girl Reading a Letter at the Window" from Dresden, and "Woman Holding a Balance" from the National Gallery in Washington DC. 

For the curators, who say it is a "once in history" exhibition, Vermeer's appeal is also about his creation of quiet worlds so realistic that the viewer feels they could lose themself inside. 

"We live in a world today where it's so hectic," said Dibbits. 

"He had more than 10 children, there was a war going on outside in Europe, yet still he creates these ideal spaces where time stands still." 

The exhibition has however felt the pressures of the real, modern world, with the authenticity of one of its works -- "Girl with a Flute" -- being called into question by the gallery that loaned it. 

The National Gallery of Art in Washington said last year it was likely painted by a "studio associate of Vermeer" but the Rijksmuseum says it thinks it's authentic. 

"It's very important to have these discussions," said Dibbits. 

The magic of the master is still bewitching for staff at the Rijksmuseum. 

"For me personally Vermeer is one of the greatest artists in the world," said Gregor Weber, the Rijksmuseum's fine arts department head and author of a recent book showing Vermeer was influenced by a pinhole camera that was first introduced to him by Jesuit priests. 

"To have three quarters of his oeuvre together here in Amsterdam under one roof is the crown of my work."

Controversial golden coach won’t be used until society is ready, king says

DutchNews, January 13, 2022

Photo: Mauvries via Depositphotos.com

The Dutch royal family will not use a ceremonial golden coach for the time being, because society is not yet ready for it, king Willem-Alexander said on Thursday in a video message. 

In the last decade, the horse-drawn coach, traditionally used for formal occasions such as budget day, has repeatedly come under fire for a painted panel which depicts scenes of colonialism. 

The coach has been out of use for five years during a period of renovation and it had been unclear whether its future will now only be as a museum piece, because of the wider debate about the Dutch role in slavery and depictions of the so-called Golden Age. 

‘Our history has many things to be proud of, but it also offers lessons in recognising mistakes and avoiding them in the future,’ the king said in his video message. ‘We cannot rewrite the past. But we can try to come to terms with it together. That applies to the colonial past as well.’

The king said simply banning objects and symbols from history or judging them by today’s norms, is not the solution. ‘We need a concerted effort that goes deeper and lasts longer, an effort that unites us rather than divides us,’ he said. 

The coach is currently the centrepiece in an exhibition at the Amsterdam Museum, which will end in February. 

‘As long as people live in the Netherlands who feel the pain of discrimination on a daily basis, the past is still casting a shadow,’ the king said. ‘The golden coach will only be able to drive again when the Netherlands is ready for it, and that is not yet the case.’ 

Amsterdam Museum welcomed the king’s statement and said that it is making the coach, which is in a courtyard, available to the public to view at no cost (although the museum itself is closed). 

‘We understand the king’s decision,’ said artistic director Margriet Schavemaker in a statement. ‘As a museum we think – precisely because we have experienced this in our own exhibition – that an object like the Golden Coach comes into its own in a museum context because there is room for deeper understanding and nuance which can start a conversation. 

‘We believe as a museum that the Netherlands is systematically changing in the way it handles its colonial past, and how it thinks about a controversial piece of heritage like the Golden Coach.’ 

It is not clear if the coach will go on display elsewhere when the Amsterdam Museum exhibition closes at the end of February.

Rijkmuseum places most detailed ever Night Watch photo online

DutchNews, May 13, 2020 

Photo: Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has put the most detailed everphotograph of The Night Watch online, making it possible to zoom in on individual brushstrokes and even particles of pigment in the painting. 

The giant photograph is made up of 528 exposures stitched together digitally and the final image is made up of 44.8 gigapixels, with a distance between each pixel of just 20 micrometres.

‘The Operation Night Watch research team use the very latest technologies and continually push the boundaries of what was thought possible,’ museum director Taco Dibbits said. ‘The photograph is a crucial source of information for the researchers, and online visitors can use it to admire Rembrandt’s masterpiece in minute detail.’ 

At the same time, work on Operation Night Watch resumes on Wednesday in the glass chamber in the museum, although restoration itself has now been delayed until next year. This is because the glassed off area is too small to allow more than two restorers to do the work, the museum said.

Work on the 17th century masterpiece started almost a year ago when it was taken out of its frame and subjected to the most thorough probe in its existence. The aim was to ‘create the most extensive database possible with today’s technology’ the museum’s head of science, Katrien Keune said at the time. 

It is not clear when the project will be finished, museum staff told the ANP press agency.  ‘We won’t rush things. This can only be done  once and it has to be done it well. We owe it to the world,’ the statement said. 

The Rijksmuseum will be opening its doors on June 1 but will only accommodate 2,000 visitors a day instead of the usual 10,000.

Museum of Bags and Purses is first museum to close for good

DutchNews, April 30, 2020 

Photo: Bert Knottenbeld via Wikimedia Commons

Amsterdam’s museum of Bags and Purses is closing its doors for good, citing financial problems caused by the coronavirus crisis. 

‘All options to keep the museum open haven been investigated by the supervisory board but not enough sponsoring and subsidies can be found to keep the museum open in the long term,’ the museum said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Tassenmuseum opened its doors in 2007 in the plush surroundings of the 17th century former mayoral residence at Herengracht 573 and housed some 4,500 bags both old and modern. The collection started with a tortoise shell bag found in England by antiques dealer Hendrikje Ivo. 

Over half a million people have visited the museum over the last 13 years and many  Dutch and international designers were given a chance to show their work there. 

The museum, which is an independent foundation, said efforts will be made to keep the collection intact but no plans have been put forward as yet to find another home for it. In total, 32 people, including a number of freelancers, will be out of a job because of the closure. 

‘I am very sad to have to close the doors of this very special house, this beautiful museum. I and my team were exploring the importance of bags for identity, fashion, workmanship and society but reality caught up with us,’ director Manon Schaap said. 

The Tassenmuseum is the first museum to announce its closure because of the coronavirus crisis. The Dutch museum association recently said that the consequences of the crisis are pushing small and medium-sized museums in particular into the danger zone and warned that as many as 100 out of 400 museums might close for good before the end of the year. 

Most museums will be closed until at least June 1.

New research reveals more of the 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'

Yahoo – AFP, April 28, 2020

New research has revealed more about Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring
(c. 1665)' but has not uncovered her identity (AFP Photo/Bart MAAT)

The Hague (AFP) - Scientific investigation of Vermeer's world-famous painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" has revealed elements that make her more "personal", even if her identity remains a mystery.

The Mauritshuis art museum, where the painting is housed, announced on Tuesday that an examination -- the first of its kind -- had revealed the presence of tiny eyelashes around the girl's eyes, invisible to the naked eye.

Research also established the existence of a green curtain in the seemingly empty background of the painting dating from 1665, a sort of "folded fabric" that has faded to black over the centuries.

Art lovers and researchers around the world have long been fascinated by the Dutch master's painting of the young woman with an enigmatic look, wearing a blue and yellow turban, a heavy pearl hanging from her ear.

It has inspired further artworks, notably Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" which gave rise to an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

"The results of The Girl in the Spotlight research project... offers a glimpse of a much more 'personal' painting than previously thought," The Hague's Mauritshuis said.

The museum said the examination used non-invasive imaging and scanning techniques, digital microscopy and paint sample analysis.

Conducted by an international team of scientists from February 2018, the review shed new light on the use of pigments and how Vermeer developed his work using different layers.

The grand master, for example, modified the composition of the painting, shifting the position of the ear, the top of the scarf and the nape of the neck.

He also used raw materials from around the world, including the semi-precious lapis lazuli stone from Afghanistan to make ultramarine which was "more precious than gold" in the 17th century.

The pearl itself is an "illusion", says the Mauritshuis, made up of "translucent and opaque touches of white paint", while the hook is missing.

The examination did not, however, identify the girl, or establish whether she really existed or if she is the product of Vermeer's imagination.

"The girl hasn't revealed the secret of her identity yet but we got to know her a little better," said museum director Martine Gosselink.

"This is not the end point of our research."

Chevalier tweeted that the new research was "interesting", adding that "all details are important".

Her fictional tale chronicling a young maid who is taken into the Vermeer household and becomes his muse and model for the painting has sold over five million copies worldwide.

The author joked that she did not want the museum to discover the girl's true identity.

"If that happens, my book is toast!" she tweeted.

Germany pledges €4m for Amsterdam’s new Holocaust museum

DutchNews, January 14, 2020 

Photo: Luuk Kramer, National Holocaust Museum

Germany has pledged €4m for the development of the new Dutch national Holocaust museum, the Parool has reported. 

‘This contribution means we can say with certainty the museum will happen,’ Emile Schrijver, director of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter told the paper. 

‘Germany feels responsible for the history,’ he said. ‘The country has been consciously processing its past for a long time. This contribution shows they are taking responsibility and want to warn people and encourage them to think.’ 

The museum will be housed in two buildings on the Plantage Middenlaan – the Hollandsche Schouwburg, where Jews were rounded up ahead of deportation to the concentration camps, and a teacher training college and seminary on the other side of the road. 

The school currently houses a temporary museum which will close in February 2020 while the renovations are carried out. 

The project is expected to cost €27m and the German contribution brings the total up to €21m. The Dutch government has contributed €5.6m and private sponsors €4m. 

The Nazis together with Dutch collaborators murdered about 75% of the Netherlands’ prewar Jewish population of approximately 140,000 – the highest death rate in Western Europe.

Amsterdam museum ditches ‘Golden Age’ in favour of inclusive ’17th century’

DutchNews, September 13, 2019

Photo: Amsterdam Museum

The Amsterdam Museum, which chronicles the history of the city in its exhibitions, has decided to ditch the term Gouden Eeuw (Golden Age) because the term is not representative enough of life the 17th century, the museum announced on its website. 

The museum stated that the term Golden Age, denoting the rise of economic and military might in the Netherlands, has long been used as shorthand for national pride with such positive associations as peace, prosperity and innocence. 

‘But the term denies the negative of the period, such as forced labour, poverty, war and the slave trade. It is history told from the perspective of the powerful,’ curator Tom van der Molen said. 

Van der Molen said many stories have not been told and that each generation and each person has to be able to contribute their stories. ‘The dialogue about this needs space and the term Golden Age is restricting that space,’ he said. 

From now on everything to do with the Golden Age will be labelled ‘17th century’, including the museum’s  permanent display of portraits which will now be called ‘group portraits from the 17th century’ 

Criticism 

Reactions to the museum’s decision have been largely negative so far, with VVD MP Zohair El Yassimi saying the musem ‘lost the plot completely’. ‘First we had to change the street signs, then the statues had to go and now the whole Golden Age is for the scrapheap? It’s a bit cowardly to want to rewrite history,’ he told the Telegraaf. 

CDA MP Michel Rog said the name change is ‘a hyper-correct idea by the Amsterdam elite and too ridiculous for words’. 

‘Erasing the past is nonsense,’ he said.  ‘Simply explain that the Golden Age also had its negative sides, there’s nothing wrong with that. And there is nothing wrong with a bit of national pride either.’ 

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam said it will keep using the term. ‘It refers to a period in history of great prosperity,’ director Taco Dibbets told broadcaster NOS. ‘But we do recognise there are dark sides. The Rijksmuseum approaches hstory from different perspectives. Next year we are mounting an exhibition on slavery.’

Today in “news which will send people crazy”:
Amsterdam Museum will stop using the phrase ‘Golden Age’ because it wasn’t actually that golden for all the slaves and colonized peoplehttps://t.co/HCGpGgplBQ

— Ben Coates (@bencoates1) 13 september 2019

Stolen Van Goghs due back on display after 16 years

Yahoo – AFP, 16 April 2019

'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' (1882) was one of two Vincent van
Gogh paintings recovered after 16 years

Two Vincent van Gogh masterpieces stolen 16 years ago from the Amsterdam museum dedicated to his works will go back on display this week after extensive restoration, curators said Tuesday.

The 1882 "View of the Sea at Scheveningen" and the 1884/5 "Congregation leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen will from Wednesday "be back where they belong", Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rueger said.

"The restorers did fantastic work," Rueger said in a statement.

The paintings were recovered by Italian investigators in late September 2016 when they raided a home belonging to infamous drug baron Raffaele Imperiale, at Castellammare di Stabia, some 34 kilometres (21 miles) southeast of Naples.

The area is a notorious hotspot for the activities of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra.

Both paintings -- which have since been confirmed as authentic and are worth millions -- were stolen in a daring raid in 2002 by thieves using a simple ladder and a length of rope.

The criminals broke into the museum in downtown Amsterdam on December 7 that year using the ladder to climb onto the roof, where they broke through a window and used a rope to get in and out of the heavily fortified building.

Despite an international search for the paintings, their whereabouts were unknown until being recovered in the Naples area.

'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' (1882) was one of two Vincent van
Gogh paintings recovered after 16 years

"View of the Sea at Scheveningen" was damaged during the heist, with a "substantial bit of paint missing in the left-hand corner", the Van Gogh museum said.

"Congregation leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen" was barely damaged, but restorers had to remove an ageing and yellowing layer of varnish, probably applied by Van Gogh himself.

The two paintings also received new frames, the old ones having been lost during the robbery.

'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' (1882) was one of two Vincent van Gogh paintings recovered after 16 years

'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen' (1885), the other Vincent van Gogh painting recovered

Despite an international investigation, there was no trace of the paintings for more than a decade.

World Press Photo opens its doors to the public with new centre in Amsterdam

DutchNews, March 18, 2019

Photo: Arch via Wikimedia Commons

The Amsterdam-based World Press Photo organisation is moving from its office in the south of the city to a vacant building in the Westerpark gas works, thanks to a €1.2m donation from the Postcode Lottery organisation. 

The new location, dubbed World Press Photo House, will be partly open to the public and include meeting spaces, educational activities, a shop and exhibition area. 

‘We live in a time where visual literacy is more important than ever and the essential conditions of the freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press can not be taken for granted,’ said organisation director Lars Boering. 

‘Opening a public place to engage our audience with year-round cultural and educational activities is a long-cherished ambition of ours,’ he said. 

The organisation also intends to boost public knowledge of its Dutch roots, spokesman Jan Meddens said in an interview with the Financieele Dagblad. ‘Many people think of New York, Paris or London when they think of the World Press Photo, rather than Amsterdam,’ Meddens said. 

The World Press Photo organisation travelling exhibition is now seen in 100 cities in 40 countries and attracts some four million visitors every year. ‘The impact is similar to that of the Oscars or the Nobel prizes,’ Meddens told the FD. ‘They are our brothers’. 

This year’s winners will be announced on April 11. In total, almost 80,000 photos were submitted for the awards. 

The winners will go on show at the Nieuwe Kerk as usual, but there will also be a two-day festival of photography at the Westergas site during the award weekend.

Dutch museums willing to return stolen art to former colonies

DutchNews, March 7, 2019

Photo: Tropenmuseum

The Dutch National Museum of World Cultures said on Thursday it is going to return art stolen from former colonies to their countries of origin and will also consider returning objects of ‘great cultural or social value’. 

The museum, which is a collective of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the Leids Museum Volkenkunde and the Afrika museum in Berg en Dal, will actively look for items in the combined collections which are eligible for return. 

Director Stijn Schoonderwoerd said it is impossible to say how many objects will be returned and which countries will be involved. ‘Around half of our collection is tied up with the Dutch colonial past and of this collection it is hard to say which objects have actually been stolen,’ he said in a statement.

‘If we all agree today on the basis of international treaties that items stolen from Syria should not be in our collections, why should that not apply to objects stolen 100 years ago,’ he said. 

The combined collections of the museums comprise some 375,000 objects, many from Dutch former colony Indonesia. 

Schoonderwoerd told broadcaster NOS the biggest challenge would be to find out how some of the objects made their way to the Netherlands and who the middlemen were. 

His aim, he said, is to establish a national policy for colonial products similar to the one for art taken from Jewish collectors during WWII. The final decision on the return of the art, which is owned by the state, would have to be taken by the culture minister. 

Nigeria might be one of the first countries to claim objects, NOS said. It has been asking for the return of the so-called Benin bronzes, a collection of thousands of bronze and brass sculptures stolen by the English in 1897. The Netherlands is home to 139 of them.

British artist Hockney freed from Amsterdam elevator by firemen

Yahoo – AFP, February 28, 2019

David Hockney and his rescuers (AFP Photo/Robin UTRECHT)

The Hague (AFP) - British artist David Hockney had to be freed by Dutch firefighters from an elevator in Amsterdam as he was about to open a new exhibition of his works.

The 81-year-old, who holds the record for the most expensive painting by a living artist, had been heading down for a cigarette at his hotel late Wednesday when it suddenly stopped.

Hockney was in Amsterdam for the opening of "Hockney-Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature" at the Van Gogh Museum, which compares the British legend's works with those of the Dutch post-impressionist.

In the lift with Hockney was a group of journalists including BBC reporter Jim Naughtie, who later interviewed him.

'May Blossom on the Roman Road', part of Hockney's Amsterdam exhibition 

(AFP Photo/Robin UTRECHT)

"We were in there half an hour," Hockney said.

Asked if he had ever had a similar experience before, Hockney replied : "No never."

The BBC's Naughtie said the lift had "jerked to a halt" and that nothing had happened when they pressed the alarm button.

Eventually -- with the help of Geordie Greig, editor of Britain's Daily Mail tabloid, who was waiting in the lobby -- help came in the form of the Amsterdam fire brigade, Naughtie said.

Bottles of water were passed through a gap in the lift door -- as well as a folding stool for the elderly Hockney.

Hockney’s 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' set an auction record for a 

work by a living artist (AFP Photo/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

Hockney cheerfully posed afterwards for pictures with the Dutch firemen, who gave thumbs-up signs.

An iconic 1972 swimming pool picture by Hockney -- "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" -- sold for $90.3 million at Christie's in New York in November, setting a new auction record for a living artist.

The Amsterdam exhibition examines the similarities between Hockney's colourful pictures, especially his landscapes of his native Yorkshire, and the vibrant paintings of Dutch master Van Gogh.

Tilburg slammed for job scheme exposing people to poisonous paint

DutchNews, January 31, 2019

 An example of a Chromium 6 compound: Photo: BXXXD via Wikimedia Commons

A committee investigating the exposure of over 800 long-term jobless people to the highly toxic chromium 6 paint in a Tilburg workshop says Tilburg council, the Dutch rail museum and NS subsidiary NedTrain are responsible for the damage done to their health. 

The committee has recommended Tilburg local council take the lead in compensating the affected workers who were all unemployed and were taking part in a reintegration project which ran between 2004 and 2011. They were put to work in a workshop in Tilburg where they had to remove paint from old trains destined for the rail museum. 

The paint contained chromium 6 which can cause cancer. They were not told of the risks and did not wear protective clothing or masks. 

Some 70 people who have fallen ill have since started legal procedures against Tilburg local council, broadcaster NOS reports. 

At a press conference on Thursday, committee chairman Peter van der Velden said that all three parties had been negligent and called the lack of information given to workers about the toxicity of chromium 6 ‘shocking’. He also slated the lack of a reaction when worried workers expressed their concern.

‘This is a big fail. It is possible that people have fallen ill because of exposure to chromium 6 and more may fall ill in the future. We cannot guarantee they won’t and that is a very painful conclusion,’ he told the press. 

Tilburg mayor Theo Weterings said the report was a ‘tough indictment’ and said ‘it shouldn’t have happened this way’. The council will be putting together a compensation package next week when it has studied the report, NOS reports. 

The findings may also have ramifications for an investigation started in November by the public prosecutor’s office into the events in the Tilburg workshop.

King to open newly refurbished Anne Frank museum

DutchNews, November 22, 2018

The Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht. Photo: Anne Frank House /
Photographer: Cris Toala Olivares 

After two years of building work the newly refurbished Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam will be officially opened by king Willem-Alexander on November 22. 

The building, in which the Frank family hid during the Nazi occupation until they were discovered in 1944, has been given a new entry area and more space for educational activities. 

There will be more information about Anne Frank’s life, the eight other people who were hiding in the secret annex and the people who helped them. Audio tours in nine languages about the life and times of the young diarist will also be available. 

The museum’s continued popularity – some 1.2 million people visit every year – necessitated the overhaul, the museum said. 

The museum is not be open to the public on Thursday because of the royal visit but some 2,000 Amsterdammers will be given a free ticket for a visit on November 28 and 29.

The Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam unveils a fresh look after a two-year renovation project designed to make it more relevant to young people who may lack knowledge about World War IIhttps://t.co/TQNWV3Oevw

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 22, 2018

Rembrandt's 'Night Watch' to be restored in public

Yahoo – AFP, Danny KEMP, 16 October 2018

"The Night Watch" will be the centrepiece of an exhibition marking the 350th
anniversary of Rembrandt's death starting in February 2019

Like watching paint dry? Soon art lovers will be able to watch one of the world's most famous paintings being restored live and online.

Rembrandt's masterpiece "The Night Watch" will undergo a years-long, multi-million-euro overhaul at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum under the full gaze of the public.

Restorers will work in a "state of the art clear glass chamber" so visitors can see the 17th century classic receive its makeover -- a process that normally happens in secret.

The unique project starting in July 2019 is the biggest in the Rijksmuseum's history, General Director Taco Dibbits said on Tuesday.

"The Night Watch by Rembrandt is one of the most famous paintings in the world and we feel we have to preserve it for future generations," Dibbits told AFP.

"Over two million people a year come to see The Night Watch, it's a painting that everybody loves, and we feel that the world has the right to see what we will do with it."

The last major restoration work was carried out 40 years ago after a mentally ill man slashed it with a knife.

Since then experts have noticed a white haze appear on some parts, especially in the area around the knife damage, where it is bleaching out the figure of a small dog.

The restoration will be open to the two million people a year who come to 

the gallery in Amsterdam

'Share this moment'

Rembrandt Van Rijn was commissioned in 1642 by the mayor and leader of the civic guard of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq, to paint the picture of the officers and other members of the militia.

The groundbreaking picture is the first of its kind to show such a group in motion, rather than in static poses, and features the interplay of light and shadow that the Dutch master is famed for.

The Night Watch -- also remarkable for is huge three metre by four metre size -- is now the Rijksmuseum's most famed exhibit, taking pride of place in its "Gallery of Honour".

Experts will examine the painting using high-resolution photography and computer analysis of every layer including varnish, paint and canvas before deciding on the best restoration techniques.

The work will then take place in a glass case designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who was behind revamps of both the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre gallery in Paris.

It will also be livestreamed "so everyone, wherever they are, will be able to follow the process online", said Dibbits.

Experts have noticed a white haze appear on parts of the painting

"Conservation is usually done behind closed doors, but this is such an important painting, we feel that the public who owns it has the right to see it and we want to share this very important moment."

Knife and acid attacks

Over the last three centuries the painting has endured vandalism, restoration attempts and an escape from the Nazis.

In the 1700s large chunks were cut from each side during a move, followed by several bouts of work on the varnish that darkened the picture and helped give it its name.

In 1911 a man stabbed it with a knife, then in September 1939 the painting was evacuated from the Rijksmuseum as Nazi Germany closed in and hidden in a cave. After the war in 1945 it needed major restoration.

But the painting's sufferings were not over: the 1975 attack saw a disturbed man slash the painting 12 times, with traces still visible today.

The museum decided to carry out a major restoration then, only for a man to spray acid on it in 1990.

Recently, however, new problems emerged.

Experts have noticed a white haze appear on parts of the painting

"We noticed that over the past years there's a white glare that appeared on the bottom part of the painting. We want to be able to understand what that is," said Dibbits.

Restoring "The Night Watch" will not be cheap, or quick.

"That will cost several millions," said Dibbits, adding that the museum would also be looking for private funding.

The Night Watch will be the centrepiece of an exhibition marking the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt's death starting in February 2019, before restoration work begins in full in July.

"As we say in Dutch, conserving paintings is a monk's job," said Dibbits. "It takes a lot of patience, so it might be several years."

Vatican agrees to lend Caravaggio masterpiece to Utrecht museum

DutchNews, June 19, 2018

Part of the painting, said to one of the highlights of the Vatican collection

The Vatican has agreed to lend one of Caravaggio’s most admired altarpieces, The Entombment of Christ, to Utrecht’s Centraal Museum for a new exhibition which will open in December. 

It is extremely rare for the work, which is over three by two metres, to be lent to another museum and the loan has taken over a year to arrange. 

The painting, which dates from 1603-04, will have a key place in the new exhibition Utrecht, Carravagio and Europe which features over 60 paintings, 46 of which have never been seen in the Netherlands before. 

The Carravagio work will be in Utrecht for four weeks but the exhibition itself runs until March 24, before moving to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

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