Liesbeth Heenk

The copperplate, made by Rembrandt in 1656, was acquired at auction by the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Liesbeth Heenk (born May 1, 1962) is an international publisher, author and art historian specialised in Vincent van Gogh.

She is the founder of Amsterdam Publishers which is the largest international publisher of Holocaust memoirs in Europe.

After obtaining her BA and MA degree in art history at Leiden University, Heenk worked as assistant curator for the Van Gogh 1990 centenary exhibition held at the Kröller-Müller museum in Otterlo.

During her work as a print specialist at Christie's in London (1994–98), she discovered Rembrandt's copperplate Abraham entertaining the Angels when examining the back of a painting on copper by Pieter Geysels.

She wrote her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art on 'Vincent van Gogh's Drawings: An Analysis of their Production and Uses' (1995).

Her findings were covered in The Art Newspaper.

As Director of Business Development at Sotheby's in Amsterdam, Heenk organised single-owner sales such as Treasures of a World Traveler: the Collection of Boudewijn Büch (2004), the Elephants of Prince Bernhard (2005) and the Collection of the late Frits Philips (2006).

In 2009, she sat on the Scientific Committee for the Van Gogh exhibition at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, while working for the Royal Household at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

She has also sat on various committees of Dutch museums.

With her imprint Amsterdam Publishers, established in 2012, Heenk publishes books about the Holocaust.