“I had to have some very difficult discussions with colleagues from Europe about those issues. “One of the toughest things was to actually persuade European colleagues that the paintings are safe and that they shouldn’t take them back,” he said. (The National Gallery of Art is a federally funded museum, though it is not part of the Smithsonian Institution.) The museum closed on November 14, two days after it opened, before reopening for a couple weeks, and then closing once more on December 16 before reopening on December 27 via private funding-for the Vermeer exhibition only-while the second shutdown lasted until January 6.Īs this was happening, Wheelock had to reassure the European museums that had lent to the show that their priceless masterpieces were secure, and the show would eventually reopen. Wheelock’s exhibition was also the victim of two government shutdowns during its run, as a Republican-controlled House pushed to make deep spending cuts in exchange for approving the federal budget.
It was an amazing experience,” Wheelock said. “That night, thus, was the first time that I saw the show together! I remember vividly how the guards just let me sit there for a while to take it all in.
They were both installed on the same day. The Städel hadn’t received its export license for the painting from the German government until the previous Friday, and the Gemäldegalerie’s then director Henning Bock hand-delivered the painting. 1662–64) from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. But just a few days before two more works arrived: The Geographer (1669) from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and Woman with a Pearl Necklace (ca. The week prior it seemed like the show would have only 19 Vermeers, still a feat. The exhibition opened to the public on Sunday, November 12, 1995.
Recalling the stress of how many Vermeers would actually be assembled when the show opened, Wheelock said, “When you contact somebody, and they don’t answer how long do you wait before you inquire again? How do you find the route in to make an opportunity to borrow a painting?” In addition to the scholarly research and painting conservation that went into mounting a show of this scale, securing loans was one of his biggest concerns in the run-up to the exhibition. Wheelock began working on his Vermeer exhibition about nine years before it opened. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) Heritage Images/Getty Images Found in the collection of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace, ca 1662.
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