Research projects
What we do
Art advice, restoration, and authenticity judgment
Our foundation, in cooperation with national and major museums from across the world, has been supporting various projects including art restoration. Our collaborators include The Metropolitan Museum, New York, The National Gallery, London, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
A. Restoration of Vermeer
In 2010, Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at the Rijksmuseum underwent restoration, a project which lasted for several years. We participated as a financial supporter of this undertaking, and were the first to present this project to the general public. This restoration provided many discoveries, such as the brown color of the ribbon that appears in the work, which was not detectable previously.
B. Supporting museums through the purchasing of artworks
We loan, and exhibit, artworks purchased as a foundation to museums around the world. Through this collaboration we aim to support museums by purchasing artworks that these institutions were unable to due to various reasons.
C. Research on van Gogh and its results
Researchers at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam spent seven years researching new perspectives on Vincent van Gogh. The result of this project was first exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum, and traveled to various locations in Asia. Research on van Gogh is mainly based on letters that were written between Vincent and his brother Theo. However, there are no existing letters that were written during the time they lived together in Paris. This exhibition reveals the hiatus “Paris period” of van Gogh’s life through the results of scientific examinations of his works. The results were also made available online. The Foundation was a supporter of this research project, and organized the exhibitions that followed.
Publications
Hata Stichting Foundation has published several Japanese translations of English stories, mainly nonfiction based on research. In 1992, the Director of the foundation Shinji Hata received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his novel, 1828 Siebold Incident. This work was reprinted in 2007 and included in a paperback edition of the compilation of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award novels by Futabasha Publishers Ltd.
In more recent years, the Foundation has published its own titles as well as supporting other publications. They include “Lucas Archive,” “The Public and the Private in the Age of Vermeer,” “Rembrandt, Rembrandt”, which were published both in Japanese and in English. As these examples demonstrate, we continue to engage with the world by disseminating new research discoveries.
Translated by Shinji Hata
“North Star Crusade”
William A. Katz (1980)
“The Casanova Embrace”
Warren Adler (1980)
“Raiders of the Lost Ark”
Campbell Black (1981)
“Scarface”
(1984)
“Family Business”
(1989)
“Donato&Daughter”
(1990)
“From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives”
(1993)
And others
Written by Shinji Hata
“1828 Siebold Incident(Bunsei 11nen no Supaigassen)”
(1992)German born Philip von Siebold came to the Dejima, a man-made island in Nagasaki as a doctor to serve VOC when Japan was closing its doors to the other part of the world.
While introducing the modern medical knowledge which was practiced in western Europe, Siebold had another interest as a natural scientist and collected material relating to the daily life of Japanese of the day. When he was returning to his country, he was caught for possessing a ‘Map of Japan’ which was banned to leave Japan. This was the beginning of the Siebold Incident
“George Lucas Museum”
(1993)
And others
“Grandma Moses”
(1995)
Translated by Chikako Narita
“Transformation: The Breakthrough” Whitley Strieber
(1995)
And others