From royal visitors to extortionate eBay sales: new book offers rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of Vermeer blockbuster
The Rijksmuseum's 2023 Vermeer exhibition, widely considered the most successful show of the century, drew 650,000 visitors and assembled 28 of the artist's 37 known paintings. A new book, *Closer to Vermeer: New Research on the Painter and his Art*, published by Thames & Hudson, offers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of how the exhibition was organized. The book reveals that curators Pieter Roelofs and Gregor Weber initially planned a broader thematic show before deciding to focus solely on Vermeer. It details the challenges of securing loans—nine paintings were missed, including *The Concert* (stolen in 1990) and *The Astronomer* (on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi)—and notes that the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum declined to lend *Girl with a Wine Glass*, even rejecting an offer of buses for schoolchildren. The book also discloses that the Dutch royal family and the Queen of Belgium visited during regular hours, and that over 3,500 complaints were filed about photography. The most expensive resold ticket on eBay reached $2,724.
