What is the importance of Rembrandt's, Night Watch, painting in the novel, Transcription?

The Night Watch, a painting by Rembrandt, is a symbol of the theme of doubles that echoes throughout the novel. Juliet and Miles Merton stand before this painting in the National Gallery at the end of the novel, and he explains that the painting they are looking at is actually a copy of Rembrandt's original work by Gerrit Lundens. He goes on to note that the original painting was cropped in order to fit into the Town Hall in Amsterdam, but that Lundens' copy was made before the cropping, so the copy is actually more complete now, "truer" (311) than the original.