Mar 17 2004
When Rembrandt's famous masterpiece, 'Night Watch', was moved to the Philips wing of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Holland, every precaution was taken to ensure its safety. The three main threats to the painting were temperature and humidity changes in the cold December air, mechanical shocks and vibrations, and external forces such as fire or violence.
The painting, 4.45 x 3.79 meters in size and weighing 170 kilos (about 375 pounds), was wrapped in a high-tech six-layer security blanket. One layer was made of DuPont™ Kevlar®. Embedded sensors measured temperature, humidity, and speed to ensure that optimum conditions could be maintained and museum experts could respond if something unexpected occurred.
Philips, Gerlach Art Packers & Shippers, and museum personnel oversaw this undertaking, signaling the beginning of a massive renovation of the Rijksmuseum. Philips engineers provided customized state-of-the-art technology to ensure the painting's safe transport and also enabled spectators to observe the event via the Web.
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