Yahoo – AFP,
Jan Hennop, 30 Sep 2015
 |
The
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses a large collection of Dutch art through
the
centuries, including many Rembrandts (AFP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen)
|
The Hague
(AFP) - The Netherlands and France will jointly buy two rare Rembrandts for 160
million euros, the Dutch culture minister said Wednesday after the two states
defused a potential bidding war.
The
17th-century paintings, which currently belong to the wealthy French Rothschild
banking family and have rarely been seen in public, will alternate between the
Rijksmuseum and the Louvre, Jet Bussemaker said in a letter to the Dutch parliament.
"We
believe these two rare portraits should always be allowed to be admired
together, alternately between the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre, so they are
accessible to the broader public, both young and old," she said, adding
that the deal was cemented by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and French
President Francois Hollande at the United Nations this week.
Wrangling
over the two full-length portraits of a young couple painted by the Dutch
master around their wedding in 1634 had threatened to sour relations between
the two European allies.
 |
Visitors looks at Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" in the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, on May 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen)
|
Bussemaker
on Friday said the Dutch government was willing to stump up half the 160
million euro ($180 million) price tag, with the remaining 80 million euros to
be found by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
But her
French counterpart Fleur Pellerin had said the day before that Paris had
submitted an offer to acquire one of the portraits for the Louvre, and that the
paintings would alternate between the two museums.
After
"intensive" discussions with Paris over the last few days, the Dutch
cabinet decided to agree with France to share the costs "given our
combined interests", Bussemaker said.
Details of
the agreement -- including insurance and responsibility for restoration --
still need to be worked out, Bussemaker said.
Rarely
displayed
The
affluent Amsterdam couple Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit commissioned
Rembrandt to paint the highly detailed separate portraits on the occasion of
their wedding, and the two paintings have always been treated as a single unit,
media reports said.
Dressed
fashionably in black, Soolmans is depicted holding a glove in his left hand,
while Coppit holds an ostrich feather fan and wears a four-row pearl necklace
as well as other fine jewellery.
The artnet
website said the canvases have been viewed publicly only once in the past 150
years, and Bussemaker has already stressed the importance of finally putting
them on public display.
According
to the Dutch daily paper NRC, the paintings were reportedly sold to the
Rothschilds in 1877 for 1.5 million guilders, despite attempts by the Dutch
government at the time to keep them in The Netherlands.
 |
The
17th-century Rembrandt paintings bought jointly by the Netherlands and France
will alternate between the Louvre in Paris (pictured) and the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam (AFP Photo/Miguel Medina)
|
The
Rothschild family first indicated it wanted to sell the paintings in 2013, NRC
added.
'Pair of
shoes'
The
Rijksmuseum's Pijbes said it was a new concept "in the museum world for
two countries to work together to obtain works from a private collection."
He said
each country would own half of each of the two paintings, which were "like
a pair of shoes, never to be separated".
French
Minister Pellerin and Bussemaker in a separate statement issued in Paris also
welcomed the deal.
The
solution "meets the common cultural and political objective" the
countries set for themselves, namely "to keep the paintings on European
soil and show them to a large audience."
Louvre
president Jean-Luc Martinez called the agreement an "innovative solution"
with a "happy outcome that will allow the two masterpieces be seen in
public in two major European museums."
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