When Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum opens its blockbuster exhibition of paintings by Vermeer, it may need an asterisk or two: One of the paintings included in the exhibit as a work by Vermeer isn’t, according to the museum that owns it.
Girl With a Flute, owned by Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art will be shown as a genuine Vermeer, although the Gallery says it is a work from ‘Vermeer’s studio.’ The U.S. museum announced that conclusion last month, but Dutch experts at the Rijksmuseum strongly disagree, and insist that their research has drawn the correct conclusion.
Pieter Roelofs, head of painting and sculpture at the Rijksmuseum told the Dutch newspaper Parool that “We believe what we say is correct, our argument is clear and based on cutting-edge insight. Girl with a Flute is being lent as “not Vermeer” but we will hang it as Vermeer. The doubt will disappear during the flight over the ocean.”
Meanwhile, a widely-reported story that a painting by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian has been hung upside down for 75 years, continues to draw both support and rebuttals from experts citing old photographs and beliefs about Mondrian’s intentions.
