Should the Old Masters Give Way to the New Ones?

Perhaps the one unavoidable fact all museums must face is the reality of limited space. Who stays? Who goes? Most importantly, who makes those decisions? In Germany, these questions have taken on a whole new degree of importance. The Gemäldegalerie—home of Berlin’s most prestigious Old Masters’ collection, with works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Dürer, Jan van Eyck, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, and others—faces a move to another, smaller location to make room for the expansion of the Neue Nationalgalerie, where masterpieces by some of the biggest names of 20^th century art will be displayed. Germans seem split between those who want their Rembrandt (shown above, in his 1630 etching Self-Portrait with a Cap, Openmouthed) right where he’s been and those who would like to see Germany finally to have a world-class modern art museum. As other museums and countries eventually face this same problem, we’ll all have to ask if the Old Masters should give way to the new ones? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Should the Old Masters Give Way to the New Ones?"


[Image: Rembrandt. Self-Portrait with a Cap, Openmouthed (detail), 1630.]