[attach id=245556 size="medium"]A senior security officer stands next to Rembrandt's The Night Watch painting during a press preview of the renovated Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam Photo:AP [/attach]

Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch is back in pride of place at the newly renovated Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as the gallery prepares to reopen after a massive 10-year, €375 million renovation.

The building also houses works by Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and thousands of other Dutch cultural and artistic artefacts.

In a preview today ahead of the National Museum of the Netherlands’ official reopening on April 13, director Wim Pijbes said the improvements will justify the long wait.

The 19th-century building’s red-brick exterior, which resembles a fairy-tale castle, has been left intact. Inside, a central courtyard has been crafted to let natural light pour in, creating a bright heart at the centre of the museum.

The museum expects annual visits to nearly double to two million after the renovation.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.