Museum starts ‘live’ restoration of Rembrandt masterpiece

Amsterdam’s famed Rijksmuseum yesterday began the biggest ever 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. The multi-million-euro overhaul of the giant 1642 masterpiece, one of the world’s most famous paintings, will also be streamed online so that “everyone in the world” can see.

Dubbed “Operation Night Watch”, the project is the “largest and most comprehensive research on Rembrandt’s masterpiece in history”, the museum said in a statement. “Operation Night Watch aims to preserve the painting optimally for the future and takes place in front of the public in a specially designed glass room.”

Rembrandt Van Rijn was commissioned by the mayor and leader of the civic guard of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq, to paint the picture of the officers and other members of the so-called “Night Watch” militia. Over the last three centuries Rembrandt’s brooding painting has endured travails including an escape from the Nazis, losing large chunks from each side during a move, and three attacks by vandals.

But experts have recently noticed changes to the painting, with a white haze appearing on some parts, especially in the area around the knife damage, where it is bleaching out the figure of a small dog. The museum wants to “understand how the changes are happening and the best way to restore it”, director Taco Dibbits said when he unveiled the project in October. Experts will examine the painting using high-resolution photography and computer analysis of every layer including varnish, paint and canvas.

The work will then take place in a glass case designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who was behind revamps of both the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre gallery in Paris. “This research and restoration will be carried out with the world watching... so that everyone in the world, no matter where they are, can see,” Dibbits added.