Frans Hals Museum acquires Picture from Christie's Sale
July 13 2021
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (International network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art) have announced that the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem have acquired A Festival Company in a Renaissance Room by Dirck Hals and Dirck van Delen. The painting came up for sale in Christie's evening sale last week and realised £742,500 (inc. fees). The picture was acquired with the help of the Rembrandt Association, Mondriaan Fund, National Acquisition Fund, Van Toorn Scholten Foundation, BankGiro Lottery, Fonds Marjon Ornstein, Friends of the Frans Hals Museum Association and a private Frans Hals Museum fund.
According to the press release:
The Frans Hals Museum has three other ‘merry company’ pieces by Dirck Hals in its collection (one of which was on long-term loan from the Cultural Heritage Agency [RCE]). This latest acquisition enables the museum to show how Dirck Hals’ fame transcended Haarlem city limits during his own lifetime, with artists far and wide queuing up to work with him. The painting will be on display in the Haarlem Heroes. Other Masters exhibition from mid-September. It has been on view in the Frans Hals Museum earlier, when it was on loan from the RCE between 1948 and 2019. In 2019, restitution was made to the heirs of Jacob Lierens (1877-1949), a Jewish businessman and art collector from Amsterdam. In 1941, the latter sold the painting at auction, before his company was ‘Aryanized’ by the Nazis, and he and his wife were interned in transit camp Westerbork.
