Starting in mid 2012, the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands, will be closed for about a year as part of a four-year, €22-million renovation that will nearly double the exhibition space.
Much of the collection will remain on display in other locations in The Hague, but 40 works — including Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” — will travel to Japan to be shown in museums in Tokyo and then Kobe.