This film accompanies the exhibit 'All eyes on Kees van Dongen'. It includes an exclusive interview with Anita Hopmans, guest conservator of this exhibit. Also it contains historical footage which gives an impression of life in the time of Kees van Dongen.

In 2009 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen could add an important painting of Max Beckmann to its collection, which the artist made when he was in exile in Amsterdam. It is a portrait of the Lütjens family, who owned the painting ever since. Sjarel Ex, director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, explains how this masterwork reached the collection. In 2010 a interview was filmed for ArtTube between Annemarie Lütjens, the little girl on the painting and Sjarel Ex.

Tapestries are valuable works of art. Because of their size they fit only in castles and because of the time-consuming technique they are only affordable to the very richest. Now these tapestries are much sought after by museums, however, not easy to purchase, as Friso Lammertse, curator old master paintings, explains. Lammertse describes here the acquisition of a tapestry that Rubens designed for a series on the life of Achilles. With the help of tapestry expert Guy Delmarcel, he was able to show this rare item in 2003 in an exhibition on the Achilles series. This is now a showpiece in the permanent collection.

The collector’s cabinet, which is a collection of naturalia and artificialia, is the forerunner of the museum. Mienke Simon Thomas, senior curator of decorative arts and design, shows a beautiful example of a collector’s cabinet from the 17th century by Herman Doomer. The cabinet is decorated with tulips, a symbol of wealth. Doomer was so much respected that he and his wife were both painted by Rembrandt.

In The Collection Two of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the collection of prints and drawings has a significant place. Mainly this fragile collection is not accessible to the audience. Senior curator prints and drawings Albert Elen shows a little gallery in the beginning of the collection, which exhibits paintings, prints and drawings from the 15th century. Elen dwells on a renowned print of Antonio del Pollaiolo, ‘Battle of the naked man’, that is considered to be one of the highlights of the Renaissance. Although the 16th century writer Vasari mentions that Pollaiolo made more prints, it is presumed that this is the only one he made. Furthermore Elen talks about the exquisite work of Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli.

In 1937, Dirk Hannema, the director of Boymans Museum, the later Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, purchased a newly discovered work by the seventeenth-century master Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675).

The painting, entitled The Supper at Emmaus, was praised throughout the world of Dutch art history. The person who discovered this painting, the renowned art historian Abraham Bredius, even called the painting Vermeer’s supreme masterpiece. After the war, it turned out the the The Supper at Emmaus was not from the hand of Vermeer, but from that of Han van Meegeren (1889-1947). This twentieth-century artist was arrested on suspicion of collaboration, because he had sold a painting to the German Chancellor Hermann Goering. In order to avoid punishment, Van Meegeren confessed that he himself had painted the canvas, Christ and the adulterous woman and several other ‘Vermeers’, including the famous Supper at Emmaus. During his trial, Han van Meegeren was able to present himself in such a way that he did not go down in history as a ‘swindler’, but rather as the misunderstood artist who had deceived the elite ‘art experts’ of the Netherlands.

The exhibition on this subject is on show from May 12- August 20 2010 in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen presented the exhibition ‘Masterpiece or Copy - Anthonie van Dijck’ from 5 December 2009 until 14 February 2010. The exhibition presented two paintings with an identical composition depicting Saint Jerome with an angel. Images and animations were projected directly onto the painting surfaces and onto the wall in between. A voice-over could be heard, explaining the art historical research of the paintings.

During a lecture curator Albert Elen elaborates on his favourite drawing, which he acquired for the museum in 2004: an unusual group portrait in an interior, drawn by Aert Schouman in 1746. Depicted are a Rotterdam collector with his wife and mother, a maid, an exotic bird and various objects from his collection.

Early Dutch painting is the most mysterious period in the history of art in the Netherlands. The number of paintings from the fifteenth century that are extant is extremely small and the names of artists virtually unknown. At that time, art was virtually exclusively in the service of the Christian religion. What is remarkable is that the works still appeal to us thanks to their high artistic quality. The film was made to accompany the exhibition Early Hollanders. Painting from the late middle ages, that was held from 16 February to 25 May 2008 in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.