Sunday, Jan. 02, 2005

Discovery Of The Week

Dutch art restorer Daan Hartmann was trying to authenticate a painting by Johannes Vermeer when he solved a centuries-old mystery. Cued by some details in the painting, Hartmann checked archival records and found that the building in Delft where he has worked for 20 years is THE STUDIO VERMEER USED to create his 17th century masterpieces. Hartmann hopes it will now become a museum, in part to accommodate the tourists who have invaded Delft since the 1999 book and subsequent film, Girl with a Pearl Earring, about a painting by Vermeer.