Paintings from our world-famous collection can frequently be seen in museums around the world. We understand that you would like to be sure whether your favourite painting will be on display on the date of your visit. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to share this kind of information. On this page, we explain why this is and announce when some of our most important works will be on display in other museums.
Please note that the Mauritshuis will not share the exact date on which a work will be removed from the room. This way, we want to keep our collection and our staff safe. If you visit the museum close to one of the dates mentioned on this page, there is a real possibility that the work will not be on display.
‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ will travel from 15 August
From Monday 24 August up to and including Sunday 20 September, the Mauritshuis will be closed to the public due to renovation work.
From Friday 15 August up to and including Sunday 4 October, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer will not be on display in the museum. Diana and her Nymphs will travel with her.
These paintings will be on display in the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, from 21 August till 27 September.
Masterpieces travelling to Spain
In the autumn of 2026, the Mauritshuis and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will host an exchange exhibition taking place concurrently in The Hague and Madrid.
While 25 masterpieces from Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will come to the Mauritshuis, 25 of our own highlights will be exhibited in Madrid.
One of the masterpieces that will travel to Madrid is View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer. This painting will be on display in Madrid from 9 October up to and including 10 January.
The selection of works from Madrid consists of masterpieces by internationally renowned artists whose works are rarely or never seen in Dutch museums. It includes paintings by Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas van Leyden, El Greco, Antonello da Messina, Bronzino and many others.
On display elsewhere
The Frans Hals Museum
For example, the Frans Hals Museum opened in 1913. The Mauritshuis has loaned out a number of large paintings and other exhibitions to the Haarlem museum since then. We could do that because, for example, those works did not really fit into our collection. Some of these loaned paintings are now considered indispensable at those locations. One such example is The wedding of Peleus and Thetis, a huge painting by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
In 1948, all the Italian and Spanish works from the Mauritshuis collection were loaned out to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. As a result, two 15th-century portraits by Piero di Cosimo played a key role in the renewed presentation at the Rijksmuseum. Our 1524 work, Salomé with the head of John the Baptist by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, is an important addition to the collection at the Rijksmuseum.
National Gallery Londen
Visitors could also come across long-term loans from the Mauritshuis in some foreign museums; for example, the National Gallery in London. The Mauritshuis has an exchange program with the latter museum. For example, the painting, Hunting still life with partridges, by Willem van Aelst, from our collection, has been on display in London since 2020. As a 'counter loan', we have borrowed a beautiful landscape with cattle by Aelbert Cuyp. This was a great opportunity for us, as we missed such a beautiful painting by Cuyp in our collection.
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
In 2016, we organised an exhibition of works from our depot: Highs and lows from the depot. In that exhibition, we reflected on the reason why certain paintings are kept in the depot. In most instances, they are replacement pieces used to fill gaps when room pieces go on the road. There could also be other reasons.
For example, one of the paintings in this exhibition was Dead Swan by Jan Weenix. That painting is so large that it is almost impossible to hang in the small rooms of the Mauritshuis. During that exhibition we went out looking for a new place for The Swan. And we found that place. The painting has been given a home in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, where it is now on permanent display.
