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"This online catalogue includes every work of European sculpture in the Rijksmuseum’s art collection. The most recent published catalogue of sculpture dates from 1973. Prompting a thorough update of this valuable, but by now outdated reference work was the ever-growing body of art historical research and the long list of acquisitions made in recent decades. The Rijksmuseum (and its precursors: the Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden and later the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst) began acquiring sculpture on a systematic basis only in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Additions to the collection prior to this time are few in number. One early example is the Dutch government’s purchase of Artus Quellinus’s magnificent marble bust portrait of Andries de Graeff in 1817. Initially, the museum’s sculpture acquisition policy was chiefly oriented to works of national interest. It was not until the twentieth century that this focus gradually begin to shift, largely thanks to the efforts of Adriaan Pit (museum director from 1898 to 1917) and Jaap Leeuwenberg (curator of sculpture from 1948 to 1969 and compiler of the 1973 catalogue), who sought to actively acquire international works. As a result, sculptures of non-Netherlandish origin today make up approximately half of the collection. This international scope received an additional impulse when, in 1952, the Dutch government charged the Rijksmuseum with the care of Italian and German works formerly in the possession of Fritz Mannheimer and recuperated from Germany after the Second World War. This enhancement of the collection has since served to stimulate the museum’s policy of acquiring international works."@en
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