But today, the light spills back, and the covers come off, and the last bits of building rubbish have been swept away, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, one of the world's great culture palaces re-presents itself, remodeled, reorganised, regenerated. This is the home of works by Rembrandt, and Van Gogh, and Goltzius and Vermeer, of a million strong collection of art objects. The world's press is here. We're here, not just to see the reincarnation of a major cultural institution, but because this might be the last event of this kind in a generation. We've lived through a "Golden Age" of museum development in Europe and that age may be over. This year here in Holland, the culture budget took a slash of €438 million. There've been closures, mergers, marches under the banner. The Netherlands is shouting for art. In this special programme from Amsterdam, we're going to ask what happens when a country famed for its art, makes such a drastic reduction, in state funding for culture, and what lessons we might draw from that in Britain. The novelist Philip Hensher, and the arts journalist Sherlock Higgins will take on two works new to the museum, one a Dutch master, the other a new work by the Turner Prize Winner, Richard Wright. And we'll also gather around the most celebrated work here, Rembrandt's The Night Watch. First though, let's talk to the man in charge, to Taco Dibbits, head of collections here, and to the former theatre designer and children's book author who is the general director of the Rijksmuseum.
