The Mauritshuis is temporarily lending the painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan. This is due to the Mauritshuis’ closure for renovations* in August and September 2026. ” Girl with a Pearl Earring” is one of the world’s most famous paintings and is a key reason for many visitors to visit the Mauritshuis. The work is only loaned in very exceptional circumstances.
Special circumstances
This last happened in 2023, during the major Johannes Vermeer retrospective at the Rijksmuseum. The upcoming closure period offers another such exceptional opportunity. A request came from Japan—one of the primary sources of international visitors to the Mauritshuis—to temporarily display the painting there.
Exhibition in Osaka
The Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka is presenting the Girl with a Pearl Earring during its renovation. The presentation is organized by the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest media houses, with which the Mauritshuis has collaborated for several years. The Asahi Shimbun has decided to support the Hague museum as a project partner for the next four years.
Martine Gosselink, General Director of the Mauritshuis: “The Asahi Shimbun has been a highly valued partner of our museum since the Mauritshuis’s renovation between 2012 and 2014. The Asahi Shimbun organizes various exhibitions annually with foreign museums around the world. We are deeply honored to collaborate with them on the presentation in Osaka in 2026. We, in turn, welcome thousands of Japanese tourists each year who adore Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring . For the Mauritshuis, the Girl’s journey is therefore a special opportunity to share her with the Japanese public, perhaps for the very last time.”
Mauritshuis Education Center
The Mauritshuis will use the Asahi Shimbun’s contribution to finance this year’s renovations and the furnishing and operation of the building at Korte Vijverberg 4, which the museum opened on December 1, 2025. One of the museum’s most important projects there will be the opening of the new Mauritshuis Education Center (working title) in 2028. The museum is still seeking sponsors and corporate partners for this center.
The Girl’s Previous Travels
During the Mauritshuis renovation in 2012–2014 , “Girl with a Pearl Earring”toured the world. The traveling exhibition made a significant contribution to the renovation’s financing. In Japan, the painting was on display at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and subsequently in Kobe. Afterward, the work traveled to the United States for the exhibition “The Masters of the 17th-Century Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis .” A total of 2.2 million visitors saw the traveling exhibition during that time.
*The Mauritshuis is closed to the public from Monday 24 August to Sunday 20 September 2026 inclusive
Text: Mauritshuis
Image: Mauritshuis (Johannes Vermeer, Meisje met de parel, c. 1665)
Translation to English: The Hague Online