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