"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 on display at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka from Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, while its home museum, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, is closed for maintenance until Sept. 20.
"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 told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Dutch institution is frequently visited by enthusiastic Japanese fans and other nations like China, Singapore and South Korea also have asked about loaning it, she said.
