'Girl with a Pearl Earring' creates stir in Italy

(MENAFN- AFP) Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is going on show in the city of Bologna in Italy next month but the arrival of the celebrated painting of a young beauty is already causing a stir."There is an incredible fever surrounding this painting," the director of the exhibition, Marco Goldin, told AFP-TV at a press presentation."Clearly we are expecting a big success. In just a few weeks we have already sold 100,000 tickets," he said -- for an exhibition opening on February 8.The masterpiece is considered one of the most famous paintings in the world along with Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Edvard Munch's "The Scream".The show on the Golden Age of Dutch painting at Palazzo Fava in Bologna is being organised together with the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague and runs until May 25.Mauritshuis, which is under restoration, is also loaning Vermeer's "Diana and Her Companions" and works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Ter Borch and Claesz.