One of Europe's top museums and the first to reopen to the public has chosen a timely subject for its first exhibition: deadly plagues.
Besmet! or "Infected" was opened by King Willem-Alexander of Holland, who had only just emerged from a period of mandatory isolation as a precaution against Coronavirus.
The exhibition which is being held in the branch of the museum in Leiden, holds artefacts ranging from the death masks of medieval smallpox victims to cutting edge technology being used to track and trace outbreaks of exotic diseases.
![Conservator Mieneke te Hennepe in front of an exhibit on historic PPE. Photo / Supplied](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/FOA4CE7YKOGOR6TMQ2DV5CXP6U.jpg?auth=a3b03849ad8623521aa7abedbe9457723c0dc044b7fe2f138b7153cac9fa41ef&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
One of the centrepieces includes an artwork made out of a 17-century dress that had been 'infected' with the DNA of bacteria from the bubonic plague.