Rembrandt arrives at the Met with never-before-seen works in the U.S., a collaboration with the Louvre, and a question that no one had asked.

Rembrandt rarely needs presentation. However, several works by this artist of the Dutch Golden Age have never reached the American public, a situation that will change next year with a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, organized in collaboration with the Louvre, as announced by the Met on Thursday. At least three works by Rembrandt never before seen in the United States (Betsy with the King's letter, The Oath of the Batavians, and Woman bathing in a stream) will be exhibited alongside more than 120 paintings, prints, and drawings from more than 40 contributors in the exhibition Rembrandt and the Ancients, which will open in November 2027. The exhibition will move to the Louvre in March 2028. SPONSORSHIP Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, curator of European drawings and prints at the Met, is organizing the exhibition with Blaise Ducos, curator of Dutch and Flemish painting at the Louvre. Seidenstein stated in an interview that the exhibition explores Rembrandt's fascination with Antiquity, tracing what she described as "this relationship between tradition and innovation and this idea of the past as a lens for the present." She added that one of Rembrandt's favorite works is Betsabé, which captures the moral dilemma of the protagonist while reflecting on the citation she received from the king. Seidenstein called it "a masterpiece of painting and one of the most moving representations the artist has made of emotions and psychological interiority." The Met has also borrowed an ancient relief from the Museo Nacional Romano, known to Rembrandt through an engraving, which inspired the foot-washing ritual in Betsabé. SPONSORSHIP The Louvre quickly emerged as a natural partner—joint exhibitions had already been held—such as Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio and Molten in bronze: French sculpture from the Renaissance to the Revolution. The Met possesses 20 paintings attributed to Rembrandt's own hand, 11 drawings, and hundreds of prints of his engravings. For Rembrandt and the Ancients, the Met will contribute four paintings, three drawings, and 11 prints, while the Louvre will lend two paintings and two drawings by the artist. Among the contributions from the Met is Aristotle with a bust of Homer, which left the museum for the last time 56 years ago. Although it is the largest exhibition of Rembrandt at the Met in 20 years, Dutch art has held a central place since its founding in 1870, just as New York—which was the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam at the time—maintains deep ties with the Netherlands. This makes the enduring relevance of the artist part of a much longer cultural history. SPONSORSHIP The work of two contemporary artists will also offer the American public a new perspective at the Met next year, coinciding with the serious start of the construction works of their Modern and Contemporary Art wing. The museum announced on Thursday that the commission for the facade—which invites artists to transform their niches along Fifth Avenue into an exhibition space—falls to Danh Vo, the Vietnamese artist who lives and works in Berlin and Mexico City. Vo's work uses objects to bring to light the stories and power structures they contain. In 2018, the Guggenheim hosted a retrospective of his career, Danh Vo: Take My Breath Away. (Vo has a solo exhibition underway in White Cube New York until Friday). SPONSORSHIP "He is one of the sharpest thinkers about history and how objects preserve it, and that is precisely what the Met does," stated David Breslin, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Met. "We recontextualize objects and stories to make them more palpable and closer to new audiences." This approach permeates Vo's sculptural practice. In We the People (2014), he created a copper replica of the Statue of Liberty, divided into 250 fragments, inviting viewers to rethink the ideals of freedom. For Lot 20. Two Kennedy Administration Cabinet Room Chairs (2013), Vo stripped two original chairs from John F. Kennedy's Cabinet Room of leather, exposing the underlying materials in a critique of the Vietnam War. SPONSORSHIP The Met—which currently exhibits four sculptures by Liu Wei, an artist based in Beijing, until June 8, 2027—grants the artists commissioned for its facade an unusual degree of creative freedom, noted Breslin. "There is a certain courage in taking this from our hands and telling an artist: 'This is up to you'." This freedom is fundamental to Vo's creativity. "The only thing that worries me is being able to do whatever I want," Vo stated in an interview. Vo has not yet revealed his plans for the facade, which will open on September 16, 2027. "I have no idea," he said. "It is a very difficult space to approach." SPONSORSHIP The Met has also announced that Sandra Mujinga, born in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) and raised in Norway, will be the author of its Great Hall Commission of 2027. Mujinga's previous work covers sculpture, text, performance, and digital media, and often explores political themes. Her installation will be viewable starting November 4, 2027. Among Rembrandt, Vo, and Mujinga, the Met's 2027 season will bring together artists and ideas from very different centuries and continents in a renewed dialogue, inviting the public to see familiar stories from unknown perspectives. "If our audience starts to feel they know what is to come next," stated Breslin, "neither I nor the museum are doing our job." SPONSORSHIP Source: The New York Times. Photos: The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, through the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York; The Louvre Museum, Paris, through the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York; Photo by Mathieu Rabeau/RMN-GP; Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York; Nick Ash; Tove Sivertsen.