Estimate canvases "half-length portrait of an unknown man, standing arms akimbo, is 18-25 million pounds

ARTinvestment.RU already reported that on December 8 Old Masters auction at Christie's will be a masterpiece of Baroque - "Saint John the Evangelist" brush Domenichino (Domenichino) . Works of this class did not appear at auction for more than two years.

A few days ago Christie's made a more sensational statement: for auction on December 8 may be "half-length portrait of an unknown man, standing arms akimbo" Rembrandt (Rembrandt), the upper estimate by 25 million pounds (41 million dollars) . Painting is the first product of the old masters, valued so highly.

According to the specialist auction house, a portrait (the height of which is little more than a meter) should bring at least 18 million pounds (29.7 million dollars). Head of Old Masters and Art of the XIX century, Richard Knight (Richard Knight) said that the painting was preserved very well. It is one of two famous works by Rembrandt, painted in 1658. Two years after the creation of the artist bankrupt.

The last time the "Portrait of an unknown man" appeared at a public auction in 1930. From 1958 to 1974 he was in the collection of New York's Columbia University. Then it became Pyasetska-Johnson, Barbara (Barbara Piasecka Johnson), the widow of the heir to the empire Johnson & Johnson. She put it up for auction.

The most expensive work of Rembrandt ever sold at auction was Portrait of an elderly woman "in 2000 brought 19.8 million pounds on London's Christie's. Buyer pictures became an art dealer from Maastricht Robert Noortman (Robert Noortman). Record in the category "Old Masters" belongs to the canvas "Massacre of the Innocents" by Rubens, departed in July 2002 for 49.5 million pounds. The painting, which was exhibited at auction auction house Sotheby's, estimated "only" 4-6 million pounds.

Material prepared Yulia Maximova, AI

Source: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru