Tongues wag over 'Rembrandt'
2007-10-29 12:12
The Hague - A small oil-on-copper painting sold at auction in Britain for some $4.5m may, according to a Dutch art expert, be a genuine self-portrait by Rembrandt, news reports said on Saturday.
Dutch daily Volksrant quoted art authority Jan Six as saying he believed the painting, sold on Friday by a small auctioneer in the English town of Cirencester, was genuine.
The painting had comfortably exceeded its reserve price, with the firm of Moore, Allen and Innocent having valued it at only up to £1 500 pounds on the basis that while it was likely to have been painted by a contemporary of Rembrandt, it was not the work of the master himself.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which has one of the greatest Rembrandt collections in the world, had also concluded that The Young Rembrandt as Democrates the Laughing Philosopher was the work of a contemporary.
However the anonymous buyer appeared convinced otherwise, and judging by the bidding war was not alone.
According to Volksrant, investigations had shown that the painting was not inscribed with the initials HL as had been previously thought, but with RHL (Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden), a monogram used by the artist.
Six also discovered that the piece had been described in an 1897 exhibition of historical art as a lost self-portrait of Rembrandt.
Another expert, Johnny Van Haeften, said he regarded this as a strong indicator of the authenticity of the painting.
However those who disagree point to the fact that the hair in the portrait is painted in a different fashion from Rembrandt's customary style, while a poorly-executed earlier restoration is further complicating the verification process.
- SAPA