Berlin Museum Covers Rembrandt as Heavy Rains Hit Germany

Heavy rain in Berlin might have put some Rembrandt paintings in a drippy scenario. Brooklyn Faculty music professor David Grubbs, who visited Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie right now, June 23, captured a photograph of the artist’s canvas “The Mennonite preacher Cornelis Claesz Anslo and his spouse Aeltje Gerritsdr Schouten” (1641) wrapped in a skinny plastic sheet. Alongside the work’s sides, items of duct tape seem to seal the duvet to the partitions and the portray’s body. On the ground beneath, a white bucket sits on prime of what seems to be a black tarp.

Grubbs informed Hyperallergic that he visited the museum round 4pm and observed “a leaky ceiling in the primary Rembrandt room” of the Gemäldegalerie. In a tweet, he described “a gradual patter of drops” descending from the ceiling into the bucket — merely inches away from the 382-year-old portray.

The extreme rain comes after a historic moist interval for Germany. On the finish of Might, the German Climate Service (DWD) reported that the nation skilled the “wettest spring” in at the least a decade, reporting larger ranges of rain in each March and April. Though Might had milder rainfall than the earlier two months, the nation’s north and east areas have been experiencing constant extreme climate fluctuations this month together with thunderstorms and hail.

Immediately, the heavy precipitation additionally inconvenienced tennis followers, suspending your entire Friday schedule for the Berlin Open’s quarterfinals to Saturday, in line with the Related Press. The newswire service additionally reported flooded roads and railway closures because of the extreme rain.

Lately, local weather change has resulted in excessive climate patterns throughout Europe and the globe, forcing artwork establishments to regulate their visiting hours and at instances shut solely for security causes.

The Gemäldegalerie boasts a powerful assortment of 20 work by the Dutch Golden Age painter, in addition to lots of of different works spanning the thirteenth by the seventeenth centuries. It’s unclear whether or not any of those works have been impacted by the alleged ceiling leak. Hyperallergic has reached out to the museum for extra info.

Within the part of the museum the place the portray is situated, a number of of the galleries have been quickly closed for renovations whereas the establishment is putting in a brand new energy-efficient lighting system. For the reason that building venture started in October 2021, areas of the museum have closed and reopened in phases. Within the meantime, highlighted artworks have been relocated to totally different galleries for viewing. The final part of the renovation is ready to be full by this September.