Rembrandt carries £28m record price
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Your support makes all the difference.The most valuable Rembrandt painting ever likely to be offered for sale is expected to command a price of £28m at an art fair in the Dutch city of Maastricht in March.
The 1635 oil of Minerva, the goddess of war and wisdom, has recently been restored to near-perfect condition by its current owner, Otto Naumann, a New York art dealer. The four-foot panel had been coated by a thick layer of yellow varnish, which was applied in the early 1900s in a misguided attempt to enhance the glowing light for which the Dutch master's work is renowned.
Before the dirty varnish was removed, the image of Minerva herself was hard to pick out. Mr Naumann said: "I got very lucky – I have cleaned paintings this dirty before and found them to be in terrible condition, but this was near perfect under all the varnish. I wish I could have preserved that moment when the first swab of varnish was removed and the true colours shone out."
The earliest known owner of the masterpiece was the 13th Lord Somerville, who bought it in the early 1700s. It remained in his family, unknown to Rembrandt scholars, until the 1924 sale of the Somerville collection.
It was later owned by Axel Wenner-Gren, the Swedish inventor of the Electrolux vacuum cleaner, and by Baron Bich, the Bic ballpoint pen magnate. Only two other historical scenes by Rembrandt remain privately owned: Uzziah Stricken With Leprosy, which is owned by the Duke of Devonshire, and Judas With 30 Pieces of Silver.
If the work fetches £28m at the annual Dutch art fair, which attracts the world's top dealers, it would make Minerva the most valuable Rembrandt. The previous record was £20.7m, paid by the Getty Museum for The Rape of Europa in 1997.
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