Vermeer Exhibit to Reopen Briefly
The National Gallery of Art will dip into private funds to reopen the much-heralded Johannes Vermeer exhibition--and only the Vermeer exhibition--for a week, starting today.
The about $30,000 needed to keep 25 guards on the job for a week, normally provided by federal funds, will be paid from the gallery’s Fund for International Exchange.
Because of the partial government shutdown, nearly all federally funded museums have been closed to the public.
The gallery closing has disappointed thousands of ticket-holders who found themselves locked out of the greatest exhibition ever of paintings by Vermeer, the 17th-century Dutch master.
“It’s just a sliver of the museum that we’re reopening,” said National Gallery Director Earl A. “Rusty” Powell III. “But given the uncertainty of when the government furlough will end, we decided to do what we could to make this once-in-a-lifetime event accessible.”
The gallery’s action follows the use of a Smithsonian trust fund to reopen the National Museum of American History on Tuesday, at least until Sunday.
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