Rijksmuseum's Vermeer ticket sales completely shut down after users flood website

The Rijksmuseum on Monday again suspended ticket sales for the Vermeer exhibition "until further notice." The decision was made after the website crashed on Monday afternoon due to enormous enthusiasm.

"We are working hard to solve the problems," the museum said on its website.

The Rijksmuseum site became inaccessible quickly on Monday afternoon after the museum put new tickets for the Vermeer exhibition on sale. The museum would not say how many tickets were being released on Monday.

They are for timeslots in additional evening hour periods when the museum is open during the exhibition. The sale for the extra tickets started on Monday afternoon.

The Vermeer exhibition can be seen until June 4. It is the first time ever that so many works by the 17th-century master have been on display in one showing, with 28 of the 37 paintings having come from all over the world.

There are also seven works that have never been shown in the Netherlands before.

Earlier, 450,000 tickets were sold out in a mad dash. In mid-February, the Rijksmuseum website was also inaccessible for a day and a half due to the rush to buy tickets.