Jan Mostaert, "The Discovery of America"
It couldn’t have happened at a more fitting moment: The Dutch press announced today the purchase by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam of Jan Mostaert’s “The Discovery Of America” (1550), a painting that had once belonged to Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. One of the large number of artworks from Goudstikker’s collection that had been seized by the Nazis and subsequently had found their way into European (mostly Dutch) museums, the painting was long considered part of the Dutch national collection and exhibited at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem.
In 2006, however, the Dutch State agreed to return 200 works from the Goudstikker collection to the family – including this particular painting. As recently as this past March, the painting was placed on the market and exhibited at Simon Dickenson’s booth at this year’s TEFAF (with a price of about 11 million euros). Wim Pijbes, director of the Rijksmuseum, showed interest immediately, and negotiations began.
The museum will not say what the painting actually cost them, though Pijbes told Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad that it was “the most expensive purchase of his tenure at the museum.” He further remarks, however, made clear that he felt it worth every last penny: the painting, he said, is a “significant work that tells a story in which art and history come together.”
