Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

One man superglued his head to Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring. Two other men involved in the protest stood close by explaining their reasoning; all three men were Belgian and represented the organization Just Stop Oil. The Mauritshuis museum confirmed there was no damage.

If you want a close-up of Johannes Vermeer’s famous 1665 portrait, there’s no need to trek to the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague. Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier have used a custom 3D microscope to capture and stitch together 9,100 photos of the work, creating a free online 10-billion-pixel panorama.

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window has been in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister’s collection for over 250 years. A painted-over image of Cupid has been known since 1979—recent investigations revealed that Vermeer didn’t paint over it himself and the layer of overpainting has now been removed. 

The Amsterdam museum announced that it will include Girl With a Flute in its extensive exhibition on Johannes Vermeer next year. The decision comes just a month after the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which is loaning the painting to the Rijksmuseum, declared that the piece was not actually by Vermeer. (NYT)

Two climate change activists whose recent protest targeted Johannes Vermeer’s painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, have been sentenced to two months in prison, although one of the sentences was suspended. Last week, the two men were involved in a Just Stop Oil protest at the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague. (CNN)

In this gouache, early 17th-century German painter Johann König paid tribute to the patron saint of Bohemia, Sigismond.

Actor Guy Pearce plays Han Van Meegere, the infamous art dealer and forger who painted at least 11 "Vermeers" in the 1940s. The film focuses on the fake Vermeer Van Meegere painted in 1942 that was subsequently purchased by the Nazi Hermann Göring, in exchange for 137 looted artworks.

Located in the Villa Nuvola the new space opens today. The German contemporary art retailer will situate a selection of the gallery's artists in dialogue with interior design.

The German art dealer, who runs a Berlin-based gallery that has spaces in Vienna and Seoul, issued a statement responding to allegations of sexual misconduct brought by 10 women, published on August 31st in Die Zeit. König stated that he will “take action against this defamation” (ArtNews)

Due to a regional lockdown in Saxony, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden - where Germany’s largest-ever Vermeer exhibition should be taking place - is closed. The museum is now offering an online tour of the exhibition, providing texts, images, short films, background information and facts on Vermeer.