Press releases

Girl with a Pearl Earring travels to Japan while Mauritshuis is closed

08 Jan 2026

The Mauritshuis is to loan Johannes Vermeer’s painting Girl with a Pearl Earring to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan. The painting will be on temporary loan while the Mauritshuis is closed for alterations* in August and September 2026.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and is a key reason for many people to visit the Mauritshuis. It is therefore loaned to other institutions only in highly exceptional circumstances.

Extraordinary opportunity

The painting was last loaned in 2023, for the major Johannes Vermeer survey exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. The forthcoming closure offers another extraordinary opportunity. The museum received a request from Japan – from which many of the museum’s international visitors come – to exhibit the painting there on a temporary basis.
Bezoekers kijken naar het Meisje met de parel van Johannes Vermeer in het Mauritshuis, Den Haag.
Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665

Exhibition in Osaka

The Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka will display Girl with a Pearl Earring during the alterations in the Mauritshuis. The presentation will be organised by the Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest media organisations in Japan, with which the Mauritshuis has collaborated for several years. The Asahi Shimbun has decided to support the Mauritshuis as a project partner over 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 major revamping of the Mauritshuis between 2012 and 2014. The Asahi Shimbun organises several exhibitions each year with museums around the world. We are highly honoured to be able to work with the media organisation on the presentation in Osaka in 2026. Every year, we welcome thousands of Japanese tourists who love Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. For the Mauritshuis, the Girl’s trip to Japan is a unique opportunity for us to share her with the Japanese public, perhaps for the very last time.’

Mauritshuis Education Centre

The Mauritshuis will use the support of the Asahi Shimbun to fund the alterations scheduled for this year and the refurbishment and operation of the building on Korte Vijverberg (in the immediate vicinity of the Mauritshuis) which the museum took over on 1 December '25. One of the museum’s most important projects there will be the opening of a new Mauritshuis Education Centre in 2028. The museum is still seeking benefactors and commercial partners for the centre.

The Girl’s previous outings

Girl with a Pearl Earring went on a world tour while major building work was being carried out at the Mauritshuis in 2012–2014. The touring exhibition provided important funding for the renovations. In Japan, the painting was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and in the city of Kobe. It then moved on to the United States for the exhibition The Masters of the 17th Century: Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis. A total of 2.2 million people visited the touring exhibition.

*The Mauritshuis will be closed to the public from Monday 24 August to Sunday 20 September

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665