Pigeon pecks hole in Thomas De Keyser painting

A pigeon has damaged a 17th century painting by Dutch artist Thomas de Keyser in the Amsterdam Historical Museum after slipping through the automatic sliding doors to the "shooters" gallery.

The dove pecked a hole a couple of centimetres in size in the canvas "Het Korporaalschap van Kapitein Jacob Symonsz. De Vries en Luitenant Dirck de Graeff" painted in 1633.

This would be one of the large group portraits of local militia members (think of Rembrandt's so-called "Night Watch") -- hence the reference to the "shooters' gallery". From Expatica.com.

Posted by David on July 22, 2004 8:48 AM