Rediscovered Rembrandt for Sothebys auction
Published January 6th, 2006
A rediscovered painting by Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn goes on the auction block during a Jan 26-27 sale at Sotheby’s, and is expected to fetch US $3-4 million. The oil, “Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet,” painted around 1640, has been described as “an intimate study of the effects of light” and shows an old servant woman in profile, wearing a bonnet.
A Sotheby’s spokesman says the work has not be illustrated or exhibited for the public since the 1940s.
The parents of the present owner, Howard Walsh Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, bought it from a gallery in the 1970s, and a Sothery’s restorer later confirmed it was painted by Rembrandt.
Among the other lots in the sale is a terra-cotta relief of the Madonna and Child by Italian Renaissance master Donatello circa 1450.
According to Sotheby’s, its most recent sale of Old Master Paintings, on 7 Jul 2005 in London, netted £44,284,000 ($77,542,685). It was the second highest total ever achieved for a Sotheby’s sale of Old Master paintings in any location.
Bidding for the rediscovered painting could be particularly brisk as 2006 is the 400th anniversary of the master painter’s birth. Dec/05
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