Dutch art

Henk Schiffmaker's needle whirrs as he tattoos the familiar lines of an elephant on Lilian Rachmaran's back.

"Highbrow to lowbrow" is how the famous Dutch tattoo artist describes his latest project, inking sketches by Rembrandt van Rijn onto the skin of visitors to the building the Golden Age master once called home. Or call it high art to body art.

A Rembrandt self-portrait bought from the Rothschild family with 150 million euros ($162 million) of Dutch state cash went on display at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum on June 15.

The Netherlands agreed to buy "The Standard-Bearer" with public money in 2022, after Paris cleared its sale despite the painting being considered as a "national treasure" in France.

Experts have found a hidden jug holder and basket in Dutch master Johannes Vermeer's famed painting "The Milkmaid" which he later painted over, Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum said on Sept. 8.

The discoveries in the work painted some 350 years ago shed new light on the technique of the enigmatic artist, ahead of the largest ever exhibition of Vermeer's work starting at the museum in 2023.

Amit Sood still remembers a piece of advice he received nearly a decade ago from a museum director: "Museums have been around for hundreds of years… we've seen many trends, even wars, come and go, but we're still here."

Amsterdam's famed Rijksmuseum on July 8 began a historic restoration of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch," erecting a huge glass cage around the painting so the public can see the work carried out live.

For the first time, and likely the last, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is showing off most of its works by Rembrandt van Rijn in a single exhibition.

What happens when an artist who devoted most of his career to painting landscapes and still lifes turns to the people he knows best?    

A new blockbuster exhibition showcasing the works of Johannes Vermeer which opened on Feb. 22 aims to smash the myth that the Dutch master was a solitary genius who worked alone at home cut off from the world.

French President Francois Hollande and the Dutch king and queen on March 10 viewed two rare Rembrandts jointly bought by the Louvre and Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum to avoid a bidding war between their two countries.