Rembrandt's Painting, Long Considered Work of Apprentice, Sold for $14 million

On Wednesday, 6 December, Sotheby's auctioned the work of Dutch artist Rembrandt "Adoration of the Kings" for $13.8 million. For a long time, it was mistakenly attributed to the artist's student and estimated at only 10-15 thousand euros, CNN reports.

The monochrome painting depicting the meeting of the three wise men with the baby Jesus appeared in the world of collectors in the 1950s. Until then, few people had seen the work. In 1955, it was acquired by the collector Johannes Carel Hendrik Heldring in Amsterdam. 30 years later, in 1985, his widow sold the painting to a German family, who kept it until it was sold at Christie's two years ago.

Before the sale, Christie's noted that the author of the work belonged to Rembrandt's "circle," meaning that the painting was created by a student or artist close to the famous painter. At the time, its value was estimated at 10-15 thousand euros. Eventually, the painting was purchased by an anonymous buyer for 860 thousand euros - more than 50 times the estimated value of the painting.

Later, the anonymous owner of "Adoration of the Kings" transferred the painting to Sotheby's. And the auction house began an 18-month study to determine the true authorship and value of the work.

The first mention of the painting was found in the 1714 inventory of the Amsterdam collector Constantijn Ranst. Then it was put up for sale in 1814, and then again in 1822, after which the work "The Adoration of Kings" disappeared from view until the mid-20th century.

In the 1950s, it was included in museum exhibitions and was identified as a work by Rembrandt. However, in 1960, the German art critic Kurt Bauch, who had only seen the painting in a black-and-white photograph, described it as a work of the Rembrandt school. After that, the painting was ignored in the literature on Rembrandt.

An expert examination, which included X-rays and infrared images, as well as discussions with Rembrandt scholars, led to the conclusion that the painting was his work. A thorough study of the painting revealed a number of changes and modifications made by the artist. It is believed that the painting was painted at the beginning of Rembrandt's career, around 1628. At that time, the artist was 21-22 years old and lived in the Dutch city of Leiden.

"This exquisite painting is equally a product of Rembrandt's brush and his intellect. All the hallmarks of his late 1620s style are evident in both the visible painted surface and the deeper layers revealed by the research, demonstrating the many changes during its creation and shedding new light on how he thought," said George Gordon, Co-Chairman of Old Masters at Sotheby's.