The Netherlands wants to buy Rembrandt’s “standard holder”

A few years ago, Rembrandt’s painting was estimated at 165 million euros. The Netherlands intends to invest up to 175 million euros to return to Amsterdam.

The Netherlands wants to spend up to 175 million euros on a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and bring it to Amsterdam. The Rothschilds offered to sell the work “Flag Bearer” (circa 1636) in 2019, and then declared it a national cultural treasure by the French government, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Wednesday.

The related 30-month export ban has now ended without the Louvre or any other French museum raising funds for the purchase. “The French now want to issue an export permit on the condition that the work is on public display,” said Tako Debets, director of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. The painting will be shown there in the future.

With 150 million euros, the Dutch Ministry of Culture offers the largest sum to date. The Rembrandt Society, to which some 16,000 art lovers belong, contributes an additional 15 million. The Rijksmuseum wants to contribute €10 million. The painting was worth €165 million a few years ago, but it may be more expensive now.

The basis of “The Night Watch”

By means of a self-portrait of the “Flag Bearer”, the Ministry of Culture announced that Rembrandt had achieved an artistic breakthrough, which later led to the commissioning of “The Night Watch”. This large painting is the masterpiece of the Rijksmuseum.

In 2015, France and the Netherlands together raised 160 million euros for the purchase of two works by Rembrandt from the Rothschilds – portraits of the Amsterdam couple Martin Solmans and Objen Kopet from 1634. Since then these portraits have been shown alternately at the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum.

(APA / DPA)