The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Mauritshuis have exchanged 25 masterpieces each. The exhibition of Dutch Golden Age paintings is now on display in Madrid.
According to que.es, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and the Mauritshuis in The Hague have exchanged 25 masterpieces each, in a pioneering operation due to its simultaneity. The exhibition in Madrid is titled Masterpieces from The Hague.
Both museums presented their exhibitions with a week's difference. The paintings from the Mauritshuis, dated from 1615 to 1705, are now occupying the halls of the Madrid museum.
The Spanish State granted a guarantee of 378.8 million euros to cover the shipment, as stated in the Official State Bulletin of May 13, 2026.
The exhibition is organised into three rooms by genre rather than by author. The first room features still lifes and genre scenes, with works by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Pieter Claesz, Nicolaes Maes, and Jan Steen.
The second room is dedicated to landscapes and compositions with figures, featuring names such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Hendrick Avercamp. The third room includes The Garden of Eden and the Fall of Adam and Eve, from 1615, a work by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, and the View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer, prominently displayed.
The relationship between the two institutions goes back a long way. Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza settled in The Hague after the Hungarian revolution of 1919, and his son Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002) was born and raised there. Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, with the advice of dealer Rudolf J. Heinemann, the collection added works by Van Dyck, Jan Steen, and Gerrit Dou.
The exchange originated from a conversation. According to the account of the operation itself, Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis, proposed three years ago to Guillermo Solana, artistic director of the Thyssen, to make an exchange, and Solana accepted immediately.
As part of the programming, there will be a literary day on November 21 with some of the authors of a catalogue in which ten Spanish and ten Dutch writers have written stories inspired by the paintings in the exhibition.
The exhibition can be visited at the Madrid headquarters of the Thyssen. Hours and tickets can be checked on their official website.
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