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OSAKA: Girl with a Pearl Earring will go on show in Osaka this week, on a rare trip abroad for the 17th-century Johannes Vermeer masterpiece and potentially its last to Japan.

The work will be displayed from Friday at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka while its home museum, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, closes until September 20 for maintenance.

“For the Mauritshuis, the Girl’s journey is a special opportunity to share her with the Japanese public, perhaps for the very last time,” said Mauritshuis’ director Martine Gosselink.

The museum generally does not loan the painting “because she is our most important and precious painting”, but the renovations allowed it to travel, Gosselink said.