Famous works by Johannes Vermeer and Carel Fabritius to go back on display after £25m renovation of Dutch museum
People pass Johannes Vermeer's painting The Girl With the Pearl Earring in Mauritshuis museum before it was closed for renovation. Photograph: Dusan Vranic/AP
One of the world's most famous paintings, Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring, as well as Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch will go back on public display in The Hague in June after the two-year closure and £25m renovation of its home, the Mauritshuis.
The gallery's director, Emilie Gordenker, said they were on budget and scheduled to reopen what is widely acknowledged as one of the most beautiful small museums anywhere.
The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. Photograph: Francis G Mayer/Corbis
The gallery's director, Emilie Gordenker, said they were on budget and scheduled to reopen what is widely acknowledged as one of the most beautiful small museums anywhere.
The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. Photograph: Francis G Mayer/Corbis
The Mauritshuis has a particularly fine collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings. As well as owning three works by Johannes Vermeer, it has important works by Rembrandt and Jan Steen, and Fabritius's The Goldfinch, made newly famous by Donna Tartt's novel of the same name, published last year.
Gordenker said the 17th-century building, stunning though it is, did not fully meet the needs of a 21st-century visitor, so when the opportunity to buy an art deco building across the road came up, they leapt at it.
"The challenge for the architects was, how do you unite these two very different buildings and make them one?" she said.
The Amsterdam-based practice Hans van Heeswijk proposed going underground, so visitors will now enter the building by a lift or stairs going down to a new foyer. From there, the choice will be to go into the historic permanent collection or into the 1930s building for temporary exhibitions and a new education centre. Gordenker said they were anticipating a 25% increase in visitor numbers to 300,000 a year.
The Girl with a Pearl Earring, subject of the Tracy Chevalier novel and subsequent film, has been on a world tour while the museum has been closed. Gordenker said: "We are very keen for the Girl to go back to her old room, she's getting a little homesick. But we are looking at measures to control crowds. It is a small room, and we might put a subtle barrier in front, but essentially we would like to keep the atmosphere as it was."
The Mauritshuis will reopen on 27 June.
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