The Vanishing Rembrandts - ACE249.2

Amsterdam at night. Commentary says "No-one can resist The Committee… One word from them, and millions of dollars can disappear." Details from Rembrandt’s Night Watch (The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch) (1642). Commentary says The Committee "can make a Rembrandt vanish, overnight". Pieter van Thiel talking about Rembrandt paintings. Commentary says Committee believes far too many paintings have been attributed to Rembrandt and wants to put this right. Paintings – Self Portrait of Rembrandt with Gorget (c.1629) The Prophet Jeremiah Mourning over the Destruction of Jerusalem (1630), Self Portrait at the Age of 63 (1669). Van Thiel says Committee is interested in authenticating real Rembrandt work and in correctly classifying those paintings which are not actually by him. Commentary says that the number of "authentic" Rembrandts has fallen from around 1000 at the beginning of the 20th century to around 300. Volumes of the Rembrandt Research Project’s publication, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Van Thiel describes the arrangement of this work. Otto Naumann, Art Dealer, says the sheer size of the Project makes it essential source. Young Man in a Turban (1631) from the Queen’s Collection Nativity / Holy Family (1640) from the Louvre, Portrait of Philip Lukasz from London’s National Portrait Gallery. Portrait of a Man (1632) and Portrait of a Woman (1632) from the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Naumann says that dealers want to know what information is in the Project’s files. Portrait of a Man with a Beard (also listed as Bearded Man Standing in an Archway) from the collection of Baron von Thyssen; rejection by the Committee cut its sale price to $800,000, against its earlier valuation of $8,000,000. Naumann says that because the authentications are done by a committee, they seem to carry more weight. Old Man with a Beard, property of Lord Samuel. Christopher Brown, Chief Curator National Gallery, London, says that rejection by the Committee can cause an emotional impact. Numerous photographs from the Corpus volumes. Commentary says the Committee has set out to challenge attributions which have no evidential basis. Josua Bruyn, Rembrandt Research Project, says it’s not possible that all these attributions could be correct.