The story of ‘The Night Watch’ (my copy of the painting)

A few years ago I had a layover of some 8 hours in Amsterdam. I landed in the morning, left in the evening and that time was the most activity intense I have ever spent in a city (the advantage of having the airport very close to the city by train). I was fascinated by bicycles and took lots of photos, as almost every bicycle had a story to tell (see my series Bicycles of Amsterdam 3, Bicycles of Amsterdam 2). I also visited a few museums and among them the Rijskmuseum where the famous painting ‘The Night Watch’ by Rembrandt is.

I had always wanted to see this painting and finally I had the opportunity even if I had not been planned on purpose (it was cheaper to fly to Vancouver via Amsterdam with KLM).
And I was not disappointed, Wikipedia: ‘The painting is renowned for three elements: its colossal size (363 x 437 cm ~ 11 ft 10in x 14 ft 4in), the effective use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military portrait.’
I was there, so I had to buy a copy, reduced size of course, I wish I could have the place to put up a real size copy :).

So at the end of the day I got on the train back to the airport. I put my knapsack on the rack and I ‘congratulated myself’ on the nice day I’d had and that I could rest now. And then I realized the tragedy, I did not have the cartoon cylinder with the copy of the painting. I grabbed the knapsack and jumped out of the train that had not left yet.

Where was the painting? I started to frantically run through Amsterdam going to the same places that I had been through from the museum to the train station. The flight was in some 2 hours and I was looking for a painting. Perhaps I left it by the bench where I had a sandwich. No, it wasn’t there. That was the maximum point I could reach without jeopardizing the flight so I decided to run back to the train station but I was still looking for my painting. I was on one side of a market square and I saw it, a light blue cylinder very visible even in the dim light of the evening. A man on a bench was holding it. I went to him, said it was mine, he clearly recognized me as he must have seen me leaving it there but he would not give it to me. I understood the ‘message’, happily gave him 5 euros and got my painting back.

Then again I started running like a mad man to catch the train. Got on the train, thank God they were often, arrived at the airport, ran through it as well and arrived at the gate where the security check was. They were just boarding so it wasn’t so bad but they took me aside, they looked into my bags and asked some questions, forgot what. I must have been very suspicious looking so distraught and all wet because of the sweat.

And the end of the story, I framed the painting and here it is: