Victor de Stuers

Victor Eugène Louis de Stuers (20 October 1843, Maastricht – 21 March 1916, Den Haag) was a Dutch art historian, lawyer, civil servant and politician. He was highly active in the cultural field – he is widely regarded as the father of historic preservation in the Netherlands, played a notable part in keeping Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring in the Netherlands and chose the architect Pierre Cuypers (a fellow Catholic and fellow Limburger) to design the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

He studied law in Leiden and is still known there for his drawings in the old tower of the Academy building (Academiegebouw). After graduation he became a lawyer in The Hague but continued his interests in art and preservation science, joing several committees on art restoration.

He was the first head of a conservation department in the Dutch government and his department was later renamed Monuments after he died.

In 1893 he married Aurelia Carolina, countess van Limburg Stirum and lady van de Wiersse (1853–1906) – they had one child, Alice de Stuers, lady van de Wiersse (1895–1988), who married William Edward Gatacre (1878–1953) in 1926.

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