NEWARK, N.J. – Mary Sue Sweeney Price, the director of Newark Museum, has announced that the opening of its new international exhibition, “Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt,” will be delayed until Wednesday, October 17. Originally scheduled for Sunday, September 30, the opening will be postponed due to shipping problems caused by the recent attacks on the United States.

“The overwhelming support of major lending institutions throughout the world as well as private collectors has enabled us to go forward with this exhibition,” Ms Price stated. “Because of the goodwill of our colleagues at the Hermitage, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum in Leiden, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague and so many others, we will still be able to offer metropolitan area visitors the opportunity to view the glorious art produced in the Seventeenth Century.”

Organized by Denver Art Museum in collaboration with The Newark Museum, with major funding for the Newark presentation provided by Pfizer Inc, “Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt” explores Dutch family life during its golden age, when artists helped shape ideals and practices of home that have affected Western attitudes to this day. Fifty important paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Gabriel Metsu, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Terborch, Nicolaes Maes and Samuel van Hoogstraeten will be featured in the exhibition, along with 70 extraordinary domestic objects of the period.

The guest curator for “Art & Home,” Mariet Westermann, currently holds the post of associate director of research and academic programs at Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. Dr Westermann has said she is particularly grateful that not one of the lenders has withdrawn the pledge to loan invaluable artwork to the Newark Museum.

“The keepers of these masterpieces of Dutch heritage have amazed me, with one after another offering solidarity during this period,” Westermann stated recently. Remarking on the extraordinary efforts made by people near and far to ensure that the show goes on, she cited two examples.

“One elderly collector in New York actually wrapped his loan objects in bubble wrap, packed them into his GI Joe duffel bag from 1941 and brought them over to the museum on a train,” she said. “And the man who cleaned and restored one of the exhibition’s signature pieces, ‘The Eavesdropper’ by Nicolaes Maes, volunteered to personally accompany the work from the Dordrechts Museum,” she said. “Everyone is showing a degree of commitment and dedication to values seldom seen in this age.”

The Newark Museum’s corollary exhibition, “American Art in the Dutch Tradition,” will also be postponed until October 17.

For information, 1-800-7-MUSEUM.