Boy playing the violin, left, and girl singing (AP)

THE HAGUE: A pair of paintings by Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals that possibly depict his own children are returning to the Netherlands after more than a century overseas in the hands of private owners. "Boy Playing the Violin" and "Girl Singing," were bought Monday at auction for $7.8 million by the Frans Hals Museum and the Mauritshuis museum, with financial support from the Dutch government and a group of foundations. Painted around 1628, the works are seen as especially interesting because, according to the museums, Hals may have used his own children as models. The Dutch government sees them as an important part of the country's cultural heritage. ''It's fantastic that these paintings by Frans Hals, which were owned by a private collector abroad, are now home again', Dutch Culture Minister Eppo Bruins said Tuesday in a statement. Last year, Amsterdam's Rijksmueum hosted a major exhibition of the works of Hals, who is famous for depicting his subjects in a lively and expressive manner. He spent nearly all of his life just outside of Amsterdam, in the small city of Haarlem. The Frans Hals Museum, located in Haarlem, has the largest collection of the artist's work in the world and will share ownership of the painting with the Mauritshuis, in The Hague. The museums will alternate showing the works, but will always keep the two together. The paintings will be on display from mid-July at the Frans Hals Museum and will move to Mauritshuis in the fall. A joint custody agreement for artwork is not new to the Netherlands. In 2015, the Netherlands and France jointly bought a pair of works by another 17th century Dutch master, Rembrandt van Rijn, and swap the paintings every five years. The life-sized portraits of newlyweds Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit were first on display at the Rijksmueum and moved to the Louvre in Paris last year.