In 1660 the Dutch Gift was organized by the regents, especially the powerful brothers Cornelis and Andries de Graeff.
Most of the paintings and all the Roman sculptures were from the Reynst collection, the most important seventeenth-century Dutch collection of paintings of the Italian sixteenth century, formed in Venice by Jan Reynst (1601-1646) and extended by his brother, Gerrit Reynst (1599-1658).