After almost six months the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has reopened to visitors as restrictions in the Netherlands ease.
An exhibition entitled “They’re Here to Stay: A Decade of Remarkable Acquisitions and Their Stories”, opened virtually in February.
It presents art by Edvard Munch, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, which have been added to the museum’s collection in the last 10 years.
“When we heard that we could go to the museum again on June 5th, I said to my husband: ‘we are going to the Van Gogh,” said Sylvia Verboven, one visitor to the museum on Saturday.
Emilie Gordenker, the museum’s director, was just as enthusiastic.
“We are dying – what’s happening here right now is exactly what we want – to welcome our visitors and we have a great new exhibition which we are very eager to share.”
Europe emerges from winter lockdowns
Meanwhile, in Spain Seville is happy that it will benefit from UEFA’s last-minute decision that the city host some Euro 2020 matches.
Thousands of football fans will hopefully visit later this month – but its hotels, restaurants and bars warn it won’t be enough to make up for the losses from the pandemic.
And in Italy vaccinations are pressing ahead – 600,000 were administered on Friday, the most for a single day.
At least 37 million doses have now been given out, and 12.7 million people have been fully vaccinated, putting Italy second only to Germany for vaccinations in Europe. There are now 2,666 vaccination centres, up from 1,500 at the beginning of March.
Finally, Belgium will open up vaccinations to 16 and 17-year-olds from July, the authorities announced on Saturday. France announced last week that it would start vaccinating youngsters aged 12 to 18 from June 15th.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be used, which has received approval from the European Medicines Agency for this age group.
