Victor de Stuers

Victor Eugène Louis de Stuers (20 October 1843, Maastricht – 21 March 1916, The Hague) was a Dutch art historian, lawyer, civil servant and politician.

Widely regarded as the father of historic preservation in the Netherlands, he played a notable part in keeping Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Vermeer, from being sold abroad.

In 1873, he published an essay in De Gids, a literary journal, in which he criticized the poor preservation of monuments, government architecture, and museum policy, among other subjects.

Actual construction costs were almost three times the initial estimate, and King William III wrote to him on several occasions, to prohibit certain expenditures on features he disapproved of.

The award is for architects, their clients or institutions that play an important role in the preservation of the cultural heritage, or the promotion of the urban development or architectural quality, in the city of Maastricht.

Victor de Stuers (before 1900)
De Stuers and Cuypers
Figure of De Stuers, at the back of the Rijksmuseum