Rembrandt painting rejected as not by him in 1960 now confirmed as the Dutch master’s work
After years of scrutiny, ‘Vision of Zacharias in the Temple’ has been confirmed to be a Rembrandt by the Netherlands’ Rijksmuseum
A painting that was once rejected as a work by Rembrandt van Rijn has now been acknowledged as a work by the Dutch master, thanks to two years of scrutiny in the city where the then 27-year-old artist painted it in 1633, a museum announced on Monday.
The Netherlands’ national art and history museum, the Rijksmuseum, unveiled the work, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, and said painstaking analysis, including hi-tech scans, has confirmed it was painted by Rembrandt after he moved to the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.
Director Taco Dibbits said the museum often gets emails from people asking if the painting they own might just be by the Dutch Golden Age master.
“We always hope to find a new Rembrandt, but this happens rarely,” he said, adding that making such a discovery “is just like [finding] a needle in a haystack”.
The owner, who has remained anonymous, initially asked the museum only if the painting was Dutch.