The restoration of the carved stone ornament – which weighs 17 tons and features the city crest, an imperial crown and two lions – is nearly finished. A working group from the UvA and the Allard Pierson Museum will investigate the most suitable location to reinstall the tympanum in the University Quarter. As a great deal of construction work is scheduled to take place in the University Quarter in the coming years, permanent installation will have to wait. The possibility of a temporary placement is being explored. The UvA wishes to give the tympanum a highly visible location where members of the public can also learn about the story behind the piece. 

The tympanum embodies various aspects of the history of Amsterdam and was once part of a complex built as a real estate venture by the monastic communities, which later held upmarket lodgings for men and an auction house. Only recently, it came to light that contracts in connection with the slave trade were signed here as well. In 1662, for instance, two administrators of the Dutch West India Company sat down with a Spanish merchant in the men's lodging house to sign a contract for the delivery of one hundred slaves to Curaçao. Displaying the tympanum will also provide additional context for such darker elements of 17th-century history.

In 1874, when the Oudezijds Heerenlogement was demolished to make way for the women's clinic – today the BG2 building of the Faculty of Humanities – the monumental carvings began to wander about the city. Thanks to the sleuthing of restorer Tobias Snoep and Jos Otten from the VVAG, however, all of the individual elements were recovered – though often in damaged condition. The imperial crown was discovered in 2017 near the Gaasperplas, where it was being used to hold up a barrier gate at a wharf belonging to the city of Amsterdam. The entire carved tympanum was then reassembled and carefully restored by Atelier Snoep & Vermeer. 

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the VVAG, the University Quarter will soon be home to an imposing and typical example of the carver's art, originally from one of the stateliest buildings in 17th-century Amsterdam. That structure was first built as a warehouse, then drastically renovated in 1647 by the city for use as a luxurious boarding house. Finally, around 1717, it was taken into use as an auction house, a purpose it continued to serve until it was demolished in 1874.