January 13, 1984

-century Dutch paintings that have just reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art have been touring the United States and Canada since the spring of 1982. The original purpose of their visit was to celebrate 200 years of friendly relations between the United States and the Netherlands. Comforting as that is, it doesn't rate more than a few moments' attention when compared with the other ''alliances'' implied by the paintings themselves.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday approved a $1.4 billion budget for 1984 that provides for the largest staff expansion in 15 years and a new fund to finance road, sewer and water-treatment projects. The budget, adopted unanimously, includes an operating portion that went above $1 billion for the first time and a capital portion of $340 million. ''The themes this year are service on the operating side and capital investment,'' Peter C. Goldmark Jr., the authority's executive director, told the agency's 12 commissioners at a meeting in the authority's teak-paneled board room at the World Trade Center. Adding 259 Positions Mr. Goldmark said the authority would expand its staff by 259 positions, to 8,003. The agency plans to add 45 police officers, as well as maintenance workers, toll collectors and tow truck operators.

The staff of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is recommending that the agency sharply restrict the federally backed insurance available on deposits placed by money brokers, a spokesman for the agency said yesterday. Money brokers, who are not regulated, collect deposits and break them into $100,000 packages, in order to qualify for maximum insurance on each. For example, a broker will take $1 million and place 10 separate $100,000 certificates of deposits with one bank.

Friday KING JOHN' ON BOWERY Combat vignettes range from the 13th century to the Vietnam War in a production of Shakespeare's rarely staged ''King John,'' which opens tonight at 8 at the Cocteau Repertory, 330 Bowery. The idea is to show the futility of war. While this theme was not exactly spelled out by Shakespeare, this history play is open to such an interpretation, according to Eve Adamson, the company's artistic director, who is staging it. The ''perplexing'' title character, she says, is neither a hero like Henry V nor a charming villain like Richard III. The play follows John's desperate attempts to keep his throne from its rightful heir. Tickets: $8.50. Reservations: 677-0060. ART AT THE CLOCKTOWER Every year, some 25 artists from around the country and 15 from abroad are awarded low-cost studio space at the Clocktower in Lower Manhattan and at P.S. 1 in Long Island City, Queens, under a program of the Institute for Art and Urban Resources. Now they are showing what they have been up to. An exhibition of paintings and sculpture, as well as performance and sound art, is on at the Clocktower, 108 Leonard Street, through Feb. 12. It's free. Information: 784-2084. ARCHITECTS' TREASURES

More military aid for El Salvador will be sought by the Reagan Administration, according to a White House official. He said officials were preparing to ask Congress for $250 million more in military aid in the present fiscal year, nearly four times the current level. He also said the Administration planned to seek about $350 million in military aid for El Salvador in the next fiscal year. (Page A1, Col. 6.) A report on Central America issued Wednesday by a Presidential advisory commission was challenged by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The New York Senator said he found no evidence in the report to support the panel's position that a Soviet- Cuban challenge in the region represented a serious threat to United States security. (A8:5-6.)