The Netherlands

Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands visits Warhol show—featuring her portrait

The Paleis Het Loo is showing the artist's rarely displayed "Reigning Queens" series

Bone of contention: Rijksmuseum and Church disagree on final resting place of Dutch privateer's remains

A bone and lock of hair apparently belonging to Piet Hein have been in storage at the Dutch museum for centuries—now there are calls to have them returned to his grave

Dutch museum aims for improved accessibility with launch of short-form captions

The 'long story short' boards, which summarise each display using less complex language, have so far received a largely positive response

Netherlands to return 288 items looted in colonial era to Indonesia

The repatriations show policy continuity despite the new right-wing government, experts say

Three looted objects from ancient Egyptian graves returned by the Netherlands

The restitutions are seen as reflective of the way museums are paying closer attention to the provenance of works in their collections

Obituariesfeature

Remembering the Dutch avant-garde artist Jacqueline de Jong

Her six decade-long career was distinguished by experimentation and humour

Netherlands to open museum telling ‘the whole story’ of nation’s links to slavery

The National Museum of Slavery, due to open in 2030, is part of an ongoing process being undertaken by the Dutch state to investigate the repercussions of its colonial past

Six paintings stolen from a Dutch town hall left on art detective's doorstep

Arthur Brand, who helped to recover a Van Gogh painting last month, says he was watching a "boring football game" when the surprising delivery was made

Revealed: Van Gogh’s unknown period, exploring the landscape of the remote north

The first exhibition on Vincent’s visit to Drenthe, where art consoled him after a failed love affair

Recovering the stolen Van Gogh: the museum director recalls the emotional moment

Seized in a violent raid in 2020, returned in a blue Ikea bag—now being bought back from the insurer

Netherlands to repatriate nearly 500 looted objects to Indonesia and Sri Lanka

The Rijksmuseum will return six colonial artefacts, for the first time in its history

German restitution commission recommends Bavarian bank return Kandinsky painting to heirs of former Jewish owners

Kandinsky’s "A Colorful Life" (1907), which had belonged to collectors Emanuel and Hedwig Lewenstein, was sold in a 1940 Amsterdam auction

Egypt cancels Dutch museum's dig licence for exhibition exploring Black culture

The show tracks the influence of ancient Egypt on musicians such as Beyoncé, Miles Davis and Fela Kuti, however, the country's tourism and antiquities ministry has accused the curators of "Afrocentrism"

Crime news

Cold case murder victim identified as Russian art dealer Aleksandr Levin

Torso was found in Amsterdam river in 2013, but DNA testing was only carried out in 2021

How an old postcard helped Jewish heirs retrieve their Kandinsky painting from a Dutch museum

The work, which has been in Eindhoven's Van Abbemuseum since the early 1950s, originally belonged to a collector who died in the Holocaust

Dutch foundation plans to open major new contemporary art museum in Amsterdam—with a familiar face as director

The Hartwig Art Foundation's institutional space will be run by Beatrix Ruf, the former director of the Stedelijk Museum

Dutch design studio update 19th-century Dordrecht church facade with a surreal glass sculpture balanced on four bronze turtles

The transformed Protestant building is being relaunched as an exhibition space and cultural centre called Kunstkerk, or art church.

Dutch pavilion: artist explores importance of touch and intimacy

melanie bonajo, who often works with groups who are rarely given a voice, says that Covid-19 turned an existing “epidemic of loneliness” into a pandemic

Revolutionary Rijksmuseum exhibition reckons with Dutch colonial conflict in Indonesia

Timely show narrates Indonesia's fight for independence from the Netherlands through the life stories of 23 "eyewitnesses"

Manicure at the Mauritshuis? Dutch museums turn into beauty parlours in protest over Covid restrictions

Initiative questions why gyms, hair salons and brothels have reopened but culture venues remain closed in the Netherlands

Dutch government agrees to buy Rembrandt painting for €175m—despite connections to tax havens

The Standard Bearer has been purchased from the Rothschild family via a trust located in the Cook Islands

Amsterdam to return Kandinsky sold under Nazi occupation to heirs

The decision ends a bitter dispute that damaged the reputation of Dutch restitution policy

Booksreview

Much more to know than Van Gogh: finally a book in English that surveys 19th-century Dutch art

Volume unveils many overlooked artists and highlights the international reach of painters from the Netherlands

Hermitage Amsterdam close to reaching €1m in urgent crowdfunding appeal to survive Covid-19 crisis

The privately funded Dutch branch of the State Hermitage Museum has attracted 10,000 donations from the public but director says "we're not done yet"

Van Gogh’s unknown period: his life in a remote Dutch heathland region

A new study and a 2023 exhibition will reveal how Vincent’s art developed in Drenthe—an escape from city life and his lover Sien

a blog by Martin Bailey

Dutch museum settles with Jewish businessman's heirs on painting sold in Nazi era, defying government panel

The agreement overturns the Restitution Committee's 2013 rejection of the claim, which argued the painting was worth more to the museum than the heirs

Forging ahead with historic restitution plans, Dutch museums will launch €4.5m project to develop a practical guide on colonial collections

Researchers will consider “various modes of return” for museum objects and how the process can help to reconcile with colonial past

Netherlands takes lead in Europe’s efforts to return artefacts to former colonies

The Dutch government adopts a committee’s “radical” guidelines, putting it at the forefront of European efforts to return colonial-era museum acquisitions

Chair of Dutch Nazi-loot committee resigns ahead of report on restitution policy

Alfred Hammerstein’s departure follows criticism of Dutch committee’s decisions

Dutch government committee recommends return of colonial-era artefacts

The report calls for a new panel to advise the minister on repatriations and a new provenance research centre