Rijksmuseum Opens Five Years Late, $500 Million Later

Vincent van Gogh once said that he could sit in front of Rembrandt’s “Jewish Bride” in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for a fortnight with just a crust of bread to eat.

It would be interesting to know what he would have made of the lavishly renovated and remodeled Rijksmuseum, which is reopening after a decade-long restoration -- five years longer than planned -- and which cost $500 million, overshooting the budget by tens of millions of dollars.