Back in May, we told you about the Scheringa Museum getting robbed at gunpoint. That’s right, the museum named after Dirk Scheringa, art collector and owner of the museum as well as director of the very recently bankrupted Dutch DSB bank.
Not only did the museum reopen its doors on 21 October, but you no longer have to pay the 7 euro to get in: it’s free, since it’s only half full. Although the robbery only deprived the museum of a priceless Dali and a Lempicka, the Dutch ABN Amro bank has confiscated Scheringa’s entire collection, resulting in a half empty museum. In some halls on the nails that held up many a painting notes have been placed by staff asking visitors to leave their comments about the ‘situation’.
(Link: trouw, Photo: postdam.blogspot.com)
Funk band 
NVPI, an organisation representing the ‘Dutch’ entertainment industry*, recently called for harsher measures against legal copying in the Netherlands, pointing out that there is a ‘sufficient’ supply of stores offering really legal downloads**. However, as Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet points out, they are stretching the truth a bit. 
The 
English translations of Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo have been released in a 6 volume boxed set by the Van Gogh Museum in a 15-year-long cooperation with the Huygens Instituut. The original letters in French and Dutch have also been reproduced.
As you may know, Amsterdam was basically built in what can perhaps best be described as a swamp, and as it happens peat is not the best conceivable supporter for brick. Early Amsterdam residents got around this problem by driving huge wooden poles into the bog until it hit firmer ground and then building their houses on top of this wooden foundation.
