Vandalism and the Rijksmuseum: three vandalized paintings restored by Luitsen Kuiper in the nineteen seventies

Abstract

In the past, the Rijksmuseum collection has recurrently been a victim of vandalism. Notable examples are a knife attack on Rembrandt’s Night Watch in January 1911 and an axe attack on the fragment of Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deyman in February 1931. However, this presentation focusses on three cases from the 1970s. In the Netherlands conservation history, this decade marks the beginning of the end of the wax-resin lining, also known as the “Dutch method”, a method that was previo...