The Night Watch

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, reopened on 13 April 2013 after a massive 10-year renovation. At the heart of the museum is its most treasured painting, The Night Watch, a group portrait of one of Amsterdam's local militias, painted by Rembrandt van Rijn at the height of the Dutch Golden Age. The painting's official title is Officers and Men of the Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Wilhelm van Ruytenburgh. Cocq can be seen in the central foreground, wearing a red sash. Van Ruytenburgh, wearing yellow, stands next to him. For centuries, the dark color of Rembrandt's masterpiece led people to believe it portrayed an event taking place at night–hence the painting's nickname. It wasn't until layers of varnish and dirt were stripped away in the 1940s that its true daytime setting became apparent.