"Rembrandt Laughing" was a genuine self-portrait

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Сообщение от Meister

decided to establish a business? ))))))))

As for a fake Rembrandt sold officer Hammer GMII, nothing I can say - for the first time I heard this amazing story.
It is hoped that Hammer had left his children a legacy of a great number of Rembrandt, which he wrote this great restorer, and that children Hammer live in prosperity, by selling them quietly.
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As for the sale of a completely genuine masterpieces from the Russian museum collections, including Rembrandt, Professor P, Williams in his book "Russian Art and American Money" describes how this happened:
 
"Start selling paintings of the Hermitage, it was decided by the Politburo in 1928. For Stalin, the masterpieces of art were simply objects of bourgeois and religious art that took the value as a potential product for exchange. Organization sell, he entrusted the People's Commissar of Foreign Trade E, Mikoyan, who in November of that year, organized a public auction in Berlin and Leipzig. The list of works of art on display for sale in the gallery R. molding in Berlin on Nov. 6, 1928 were: 110 samples of furniture, 102 object of gilded bronze, 10 tapestries, 40 gift boxes, 47 items of the enamel, 36 sculptures (including works Houdon) and 97 paintings (including works by Boucher, Jordaens, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Rubens, Tintoretto, Teniers, and others).

June 5, 1929 at an auction in the same gallery has sold 109 paintings. It was mostly the work of Dutch and Flemish artists such as Van Goyen, Metsu, Netsher, Rembrandt, Teniers ... Among the works sold were also Boucher, Burns, Guardi, Greuze, Canaletto, Cranach and others, where it was sold about a hundred samples of furniture and 129 items from china and tapestries, sculptures, etc.

In 1930-1931. at auction in Germany, the Soviet government sold many prints. May 8, 1930 was sold about two thousand engravings. Among them - about a hundred works by Durer and forty works by Rembrandt. May 9, 1930 sold another two hundred engravings, including many works by Goya. November 13, 1930 were sold almost two hundred engravings by Rembrandt (one of which over 30 thousand marks) and more than 50 engravings by Durer - the main auction lots. A total catalog includes 1,426 names. April 20, 1931 sold another thousand engravings, including lists of Durer and Rembrandt.

May 4, 1932, through the same intermediary Leipzig were auctioned paintings by old masters (Cranach, Dürer, Boucher, Greuze, Altdorfer, etc.

Since profits from public auctions in Germany was smaller than expected, Mikoyan decided to sell the masterpieces of the Hermitage individuals. The first buyer was headed at the time the oil company "Iraq Petroleum Gulbenkian. In July 1929 he signed a contract with "antiques", and by May 1930 has acquired seven paintings (three masterpieces by Rembrandt, paintings by Rubens, Watteau, and Terborch Lancret) and the sculpture of Houdon's "Diana» (Descargues P. The Hermitage Museum . New York, 1961). These works are now the ornament and pride K. Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon and located in its permanent exhibition.

But the most significant transaction was carried out with the millionaire E. Mellon.
On intent Mikoyan Andrew Mellon, an American billionaire who learned from his dealer Roland Nodlera, through whom he used to buy paintings for their collections.

In April 1930, E, Mellon bought three paintings from the Hermitage for 559 thousand to $ 190:
- "Polish nobleman" and "Girl with a broom" - Rembrandt
- "Portrait of a young man" - F. Hals.

In May 1930 for 223 thousand 563 dollars
  - "Portrait of Isabella Brandt Peter Paul Rubens.

In June of 1930. over 502 thousand 899 dollars
  - "Annunciation" Van Eyck.

In June - November 1930. over 1 million 84 thousand 953 dollars
  - "Portrait of a Turk" and "Woman with a Flower" by Rembrandt,
- "Portrait of Lord Philip Wharton", "Portrait of flamandki", "Portrait of Suzanne Furman and her daughter" A. Van - Dyck.

In January 1931, were bought by E. Mellon:
- "St. George" Rafelya over 745 thousand 500 dollars
- "Portrait of Pope Innocent X" by Velazquez for 223 thousand 562 dollars
- "The Adoration of the Magi" S. Botticelli for 838 thousand 350 dollars
- "Potiphar's wife accuses Joseph." Rembrandt of 167 thousand 543 dollars

In March of 1931. was sold to E. Mellon:
- "Finding of Moses" Veronese over 402 thousand 333 dollars
- "Portrait of William Nossal" A. Van - Dyck
- "Portrait of an officer" F. Hals
- "House of Cards" Jean Chardin

In April of 1931. were sold to E. Mellon
- "Alba Madonna" by Raphael for 1 million 710 thousand 558 dollars
- "Venus szerkalom" V. Titian
- "The Crucifixion" P. Perugino over 194 thousand 602 dollars.

Total for his collection E. Mellon acquired by the Hermitage 21 paintings by old masters, paying for all 6 миллионов 654 тысячи $ 53. Only one painting by Titian in the prevailing price was worth 10-15 times more expensive than all the money that he paid Mellon for 21 now. In 1941, in Washington, DC was opened National Gallery of Art, the first for which the gift was a collection of financial magnate Andrew Mellon, the paintings by Rembrandt, Raphael, Velasquez, Titian, Botticelli, Rubens, Hals, Van Dyck, Veronese, Chardin, bought them the Hermitage, and were up until now the basis of the National Gallery in Washington. "

F. Mastinskaya tells of another Russian Art Museum, which is located in Los Angeles.
"Two weeks before his death, a well-known American tycoon Armand Hammer has opened a grand museum and cultural center of its name. Armand Hammer was pathologically vain, even bought them for 5.6 million dollars manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci, he renamed the Codex Hammer. "

In the 20's, while in the Soviet Union during NEPAL, he received a concession from the Soviet authorities into two companies - asbestos mines in the Urals and the pencil factory in Moscow, who in a short time made a lucrative, thriving. Hammer, along with a large family lived in Moscow on 9 years old, represented the interests of 30 American companies, and therefore withdrew the representations of Lawn-Samotechnaya Street house of 35 rooms. Hammer begins to furnish this empty house, in his spare time passes flea markets, commission shops in search of antiques, which in the 20 years could be bought for a pittance. Here are some examples of his amazing discoveries. For a few rubles, he bought a painted porcelain dish from the king the service in 1825, produced for the Emperor Nicholas 1. After a few days in a Moscow restaurant, private Hammer saw all this service as a whole, consisting of 1000 subjects. Restaurant owner complained that a shortage of simple dishes, and Hummer in exchange for a few sets of inexpensive earthenware received service from the House of Romanov. /.../
Realizing that he can for next to nothing to buy large quantities of these treasures, Hammer has attracted experts on ancient icons, antique dealers, connoisseurs and collectors of art. His house was converted into a museum of relics, which are still a few years ago belonged to the Romanov dynasty: the royal furniture, works of Faberge, Rembrandt, Corot landscapes, jewelry boxes, snuff boxes, notebooks, richly decorated with precious stones, gold and enamel, tapestry and the tapestry, Easter Faberge eggs ... Paying at the exit of the Soviet management of museums very low export tax, Hammer evacuated and sent to New York a great unique collection of royal treasures, precious icons, paintings by Picasso and Matisse from the ownerless when a museum Shchukin.