Rembrandts of 'extraordinary rarity' heading to auction
STORY: The last known pair of portraits by Rembrandt
could fetch more than $10 million at auction
Locator: London
The Dutch master’s works have been
in private hands for nearly 200 years
(Henry Pettifer, Christie’s)
“So these pictures are painted in 1635 and they are obviously very small in scale, quite intimate in their nature, in their character. And they are in fact portraits of a couple who were very close to Rembrandt and his family.” //
“It’s extraordinary that the pictures have never been, that they’ve remained virtually unknown for such a long time. So they’ve never been addressed in any of the vast amounts of Rembrandt literature over the years. They are in fact the only (inaudible) pair of portraits still in private hands so they are things of extraordinary rarity.”
Also on offer is a panel by Greek-born
Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco
as well as a letter written by Mozart
a bust of Helen of Troy
by sculptor Antonio Canova
and a medallion commissioned by Queen Charlotte