The Museum of Fine Arts plans to demystify the craft of painting conservation, hosting a pop-up conservation studio where visitors can watch conservators treat a recently-acquired 17th-century Dutch group portrait.
Painted by Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy in 1625, the painting depicts founders of Amsterdam’s Wine Merchants Guild. Group portraiture flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, challenging painters to capture multiple likenesses while also celebrating the rising merchant class. Today, the vast majority of these group paintings (often depicting professional, military, or charitable associations) remain in museums in the Netherlands. Only a handful of the works have left the country, and the Pickenoy, which the MFA acquired in 2025, is one of just two such group portraits in North America.
Starting December 9, museum visitors will be able to observe as conservators work in the MFA’s Center for Netherlandish Art’s Innovation Gallery, removing grime and overpaint, retouching areas of loss, and applying a new coat of varnish. The entire process is expected to take about a year. — Malcolm Gay
Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair returns
The 48th annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair kicks off on Friday, Nov. 6, at Hynes Convention Center with an evening session from 4-8 p.m., and continues through Saturday (12-7 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m.-4 p.m.). The fair is free for children 12 and under, students with current valid IDs, and some workers in libraries and related fields. Check the website for ticket prices and further details. Among the treasures is a rare, signed edition of Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” that he inscribed to Vic Lovell, his guide to the world of psychedelic drugs and the man to whom the book is dedicated. Its price tag is $72,000, but rest assured, there are affordable delights to be found as well, including books for children and adults, maps, and ephemera of all kinds. — Kate Tuttle
Holocaust Museum announces major donation
The Holocaust Museum Boston has received a $2 million gift from the Boston-based Davis Family Charitable Foundation, a major donation for the museum that’s currently under construction on Tremont St. The donation brings the museum’s total fundraising to $81 million, about $30 million shy of its stated goal.
Jody Kipnis, cofounder and president of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation, said she was thankful for the gift, calling it “an investment not only in preserving history, but in educating future generations, inspiring moral courage, and empowering individuals.”
Organizers say the museum, scheduled to open in Summer 2027, will be the region’s first museum solely dedicated to Holocaust education. It will feature historical artifacts, immersive displays, survivor testimony, and educational programs.
Molly Davis Macleod, executive director of the Davis Family Charitable Foundation, said they were inspired by the museum’s vision “to preserve the memory of the Holocaust’s atrocities and to draw on those lessons to recognize and confront antisemitism and hatred of others wherever they arise.”— Malcolm Gay