Golden age artist’s Last Judgment on display at Rijksmuseum

Golden age artist Lucas van Leyden's masterpiece Last Judgement is now on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The triptych was moved from Leiden to Amsterdam on Tuesday, only the third time ever its been moved from Leiden since the artist painted it in 1525, NU.nl reports. The massive triptych was very carefully disassembled on Tuesday morning - the pivots holding the side panels to the middle portion was carefully removed. The panels were then put in a special transport box for the move to Amsterdam, where it was carefully reassembled in the Rijksmuseum. The Last Judgement is now on display in the Rijksmuseum's hall of fame - opposite Rembrandt's Night Watch. The artwork is expected to be in Amsterdam for two years, until renovations on its home museum - the Lakenhal - is done. The Lakenhal is expected to close in October for renovation. "The Last Judgement by Lucas van Leiden is the most important altarpiece that has been preserved in the Netherlands", Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said on the museum's website. "We are therefore honored to be able to show this masterpiece from Museum De Lakenhal in the Hall of Fame for the next two years." "This is a lovely way for the Last Judgement to get the international fame it deserves in the Hall of Fame", Meta Knol, director of Museum De Lakenhal, said. "From the reopening the painting will retake its permanent place in the collection arrangement of the renewed Museum De Lakenhal."