Possible Rembrandt painting auctioned off for €13 million
A possible painting by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn was auctioned for almost 13 million euros at Sotheby’s on Wednesday. It concerns the work “Adoration of the Kings,” which was valued at no more than 15,000 euros two years ago. Art historians can’t agree whether the painting was done by Rembrandt himself or “the entourage around” him.
The existence of “Adoration of the Kings” was first noted in 1714, RTL Nieuws reports. The painting, smaller than an A4 sheet, changed hands multiple times until it disappeared from public view in 1822. It resurfaced in the 1950s when an Amsterdam art collector bought it. After his death, the art collector’s widow sold the painting to a German family, who kept it until two years ago.
In 2021, Christie’s in Amsterdam auctioned the painting. The auction house valued the painting at no more than 15,000 euros, believing it to be a work from Rembrandt’s entourage. The work sold for well above its expected yield, raising 860,000 euros in 2021.
The anonymous buyer in 2021 put “Adoration of the Kings” back on the market this week, auctioning it at Sotheby’s in London. That auction house valued the painting at between 11.5 and 17.5 million euros, saying that several Rembrandt experts have become convinced that the painting was by the master’s own hand.
Sotheby’s believes Rembrandt himself painted “Adoration of the Kings” in Leiden around 1628, when he was 21 or 22 years old. Other art historians and experts just can’t say for sure.
