Christie's auctioned a record expensive Rembrandt

[SergeiSK]

The main lot of the auction of classical European painting, which on Dec. 8, 2009 in London, will house Christie's, will be a male portrait by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. It is estimated at 29,7 - 41,2 million dollars. Writes The New York Times, is - the most expensive work of "old masters" ever exhibited at Christie's.
Written about 1658 portrait comes from the collection of Barbara Pyasetska-Johnson, widow of the heir to the pharmaceutical empire Johnson & Johnson. Pyasetska-Johnson in recent years, selling a family collection, in particular, in July 2009, she put at Sotheby's a few pictures and pieces of furniture, was rescued about 16 million dollars.
History of the portrait is known quite well (not established, however, the identity of a man depicted on it). In the XIX and early XX century painting belonged to the family of collectors Folliottov, in 1930 it was sold at Sotheby's for an enormous sum for those times of 18.5 thousand pounds sterling for an American collector George Huntington Hartford Jr.. He gave Rembrandt Columbia University, and the university sold it in 1974, Johnson, where she remained until 2009.
While the most expensive painting of Rembrandt sold at Christie's was "Portrait of a man in a red jacket" (New York, 2001, 12,65 million). House Sotheby's in 2007 sold the Rembrandt "James son of Zebedee," for 25.8 million dollars.
(Lenta.ru)