Friday night was a busy night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Many people took the opportunity to see one of the world's most popular paintings, the Milkmaid (De Melkmeid) by Johannes Vermeer. Dutch in America visited the exhibition around of this work that was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in honor of the NY400 celebrations.

The exhibition begin with copies of the 36 known Vermeer paintings, five of which are in the permanent collection of the Met. The next rooms in the small gallery show the six Vermeers along with other paintings from that era. The exhibition is curated by Walter Liedtke, an Vermeer expert and accompanying the show is a 36-page catalogue by Liedtke that takes an original look at this beautiful painting.

It's rare to see so many Vermeers close by each other: 9 in the same city (The Frick Collection, a few blocks up the street, also houses 3 Vermeers). Today NLNY had an interview with the Dutch Consul General Gajus Scheltema in New York, and it mentions that the exhibition is drawing about 6,000 visitors per day.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vermeer's Masterpiece The Milkmaid
http://www.www.metmuseum.org
through November 29, 2009

Friday night I took cab in New York.

After a few minutes I heard someone: "hey! hey you! yeah, you in the backseat of that cab!"

It turned out to be a TV commercial on the small TV in front of me.

This is the last weekend of the exhibition Amsterdam/New Amsterdam -- the Worlds of Henry Hudson. A visit yesterday showed that this popular exhibition is drawing an interested audience even after 6 months of display.

This is a beautiful exhibition about Amsterdam and the first settlements in Manhattan and surroundings in what was called at the time New Netherland. The Museum of the City of New York has a wealth of original documents, artifacts and paintings on display that provide a glimpse of life in New Netherland and the Netherlands at that time.

Among the documents on display is the Treaty of Breda from 1667 from the National Library of the Netherlands. It is the formal end of the war between the English and the Dutch, and it was made under conditions of uti possidetis, "as you posses". This meant that New Amsterdam would stay in English hands and the Dutch would keep Suriname.

A painting by Jan van Goyen, The Hague from the North-East, was among the original paintings on loan from the Netherlands. Paintings of New Netherland from that time are not available, but recent historically accurate works by Len Tantillo such as Hanover Square, Manhattan give a good view of how the city looked like. The National Library of the Netherlands provided an original copy of A Description of New Netherland by Adriaen van der Donck.

Most of the knowledge we have from that time comes from written documents: "What we know about leisure activities and children's games in New Amsterdam comes from ordinances outlawing them on Sundays".

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the New Netherland Project in Albany and Scheepvaartsmuseum in Amsterdam. The Scheepvaartsmuseum is the Dutch national Maritime Museum. Its building in Amsterdam is undergoing extensive renovations and the museum has been closed for a number of years.

For more information see also the reviewin the New York Times.

The Museum of the City of New York, Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: the Worlds of Henry Hudson
through September 27, 2009
http://www.mcny.org

Kids games.

A large 3D map of New Amsterdam.

The seal of the province of New Netherlands during years 1626-1654.

You know when you're at a Southern dentist if they ask you:

"Do you smoke? Drink coffee? Drink sweetened tea?"

The celebrations of the Hudson 400 year are not limited to this side of the Atlantic -- there are also many events and museum exhibitions in the Netherlands. One of the highlights is an exhibition in the Westfries Museum in Hoorn, Hollanders aan de Hudson, of works of Len Tantillo.

Mr. Tantillo (Poughkeepsie, 1947) is an artist and historian with a passion for the Hudson River region. An architect by training, he has recreated many historical views of New York, Albany and other places through beautiful paintings and drawings. The Westfries Museum has nearly 60 of his works on display in the exhibition about 'the Dutch at the Hudson'.

The Westfries Museum is a museum for regional history in Hoorn, a city with an extensive history. Hoorn was one of the cities that operated the Dutch East India Company ("VOC"), the trading company that commissioned Henry Hudson to find an easterly passage to Asia. The museum has an extensive collection paintings and objects, including many of the VOC.

The exhibition opened September 5th with Mr. Tantillo and his wife Corliss in attendance. The American Consular General to the Netherlands, Julie Ruterbories, was representing the American Embassy (the new American Ambassador Hartor Levin was in New York to attend the Americans and Dutch will appreciate Manhattan, 1660, a gorgeous reproduction of the 'skyline' of Manhattan 350 years ago. It's interesting to compare this work with the drawing by Johannes Vingboons, made in 1656 with the view of the island Manhattan from the sea which is currently on display in the South Point museum.

West Fries Museum, Holland aan de Hudson
http://www.wfm.nl
through November 29, 2009

The Internal Revenue Service today announced a one-time extension of the deadline for special voluntary disclosures by taxpayers with unreported income from hidden offshore (foreign) accounts. These taxpayers now have until Oct. 15, 2009.

This is important for those with bank accounts in the Netherlands or elsewhere. US law states that all US persons (citizens, green card holders, visa holders) must pay tax on their worldwide income. In addition to reporting the interest income earned to the IRS, tax payers are required to file form TD F 90-22.1 if the total balance of foreign accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the year. In many cases there is tax credit for tax paid on earned interest in a foreign country.

According to the WSJ today: 'most of those accepted into the IRS's disclosure program will owe back taxes, interest and a special penalty that will work out to 40% to 60% of the account balance, plus legal and accounting fees, attorneys say. But the agency has said it is unlikely to bring criminal charges against anyone who steps forward'.

Form TD F 90-22.1:

"Who needs to file? Each United States person who has a financial interest in or signature or other authority over any foreign financial accounts, including bank, securities, or other types of financial accounts, in a foreign country, if the aggregate value of these financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, must report that relationship each calendar year by filing this report with the Department of the Treasury on or before June 30, of the succeeding year."