PARIS: The Dutch and French governments are joining forces to buy a pair of wedding portraits by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn from the Rothschild family, and will shuttle them between Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and the Louvre in Paris.
Dutch Culture Minister Jet Bussemaker said Wednesday the two countries will each chip in 80 million euros ($89.5 million) to buy the life-sized portraits from 1634, one showing Maerten Soolmans and the other his wife Oopjen Coppit.
Rijksmuseum spokesman Boris de Munnick says the works have not been seen publicly since the Rothschilds bought them in 1877.
The Dutch museum said in a statement it is “very happy that both fantastic portraits by Rembrandt are now becoming public property and will be together forever with alternating displays in the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre.”
