"Rembrandt Laughing" was a genuine self-portrait

[Meister]

LCR, thanks for the great sooooo interesting material. Be sure to read this book ... but it must be read with validol, because the heart bleeds, when you read what we have lost because of "the wise" leader. But you know what surprised me the most: where in the Hermitage, there were so many of Rubens, Rembrandt, Cranach, Van Dyck, etc.? I know that after Peter I "opened a" window to Europe, there was the formation of collections of museums, but that on such a scale? are we really so lost?