Rembrandts of 'extraordinary rarity' could fetch $14m at auction

LONDON - Two rediscovered Rembrandts, the last known pair of portraits by the Dutch master to have remained in private hands, could fetch around US$10 million (S$14 million) at auction next week.

Signed and dated 1635, the depictions of married couple Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and Jaapgen Carels, who were close to the artist's family, have a price estimate of 5 million to 8 million pounds (S$9 million to $14 million).

They were bought at Christie's by an ancestor of the present UK-based owners nearly 200 years ago.

"It's extraordinary that the pictures have remained virtually unknown for such a long time. So they've never been addressed in any of the vast amounts of Rembrandt literature over the years," Henry Pettifer, International Deputy Chairman of Old Master Paintings at Christie's, told Reuters on Friday (June 30).

"They are things of extraordinary rarity," he said, adding the Amsterdam-based Rijksmuseum had analysed them.

The portraits are among the highlights of Christie's July 6 "Old Masters Part I Sale", part of the auction house's Classic Week.

Also on offer is a panel by Greek-born Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco, "The Entombment of Christ" (6 million to 8 million pounds) and a bust of Helen of Troy by neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova (2.5 million to 4 million pounds).

An early work by the Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross", is being offered with an estimate of 4 million to 6 million pounds.

A medallion commissioned by Queen Charlotte as a gift to friends who supported her during King George III's illness will be offered at the July 7 sale "Bayreuth: A Connoisseur's Collection of English Silver and Gold Boxes", with an 3,000 to 5,000 pounds estimate.

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