A Survivor's Scars

For a national treasure, this canvas has had a brutal life. In 1715 it was trimmed on all four sides to squeeze onto a smaller wall in Amsterdam's Town Hall, lopping off whole figures forever. In 1911 an out-of-work navy cook slashed it with a knife. In 1975 a man carved deep zigzag cuts into it with a bread knife. In 1990 another visitor sprayed acid across the lower half.

When the Nazis invaded, the museum took no chances. Staff cut the giant canvas off its frame, rolled it onto a cylinder, and hid it in a bomb-proof concrete vault dug deep inside the St. Pietersberg caves near Maastricht, far from looters and bombs. After every later attack, restorers spent years stitching, repainting, and stabilizing the damage. The painting on the wall today carries faint scars beneath the surface — proof of every close call.