A $3.4 million effort, the on-site restoration for Rembrandt’s The Night Watch has begun in Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam). The museum estimates that the restoration would take a year, but visitors to the museum can still view the painting as it is being restored, as museum director Taco Dibbits reassures Reuters:
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That is due not only to the fame of the painting, which dates from 1642, but also to its size, as the canvas measures 3.63 by 4.37 metres (11.9 feet x 14.3 feet) and weighs 337 kg (742 pounds).
The painting will remain in its usual spot at the end of the Gallery of Honour in the Rijksmuseum and visitors will be able to watch from behind a glass wall as experts restore it.
Restorers will begin by taking thousands of high-resolution photos of the work from every angle and scanning it with lasers.
“Those you have to stitch together so you get one image and then we will be able to see which changes Rembrandt made” as he worked, Dibbits said.
image credit: via Reuters
Source: neatorama