London – The hammer has just gone down on the last known pair of portraits by Rembrandt to remain in private hands, which have sold for £11,235,000 / $14,268,450 / €13,122,480 (estimate: £5,000,000-8,000,000) in Old Masters Part I Sale on 6 July, during Classic Week London 2023, almost 200 years since they were previously auctioned at Christie’s. A landmark rediscovery, these exceptionally rare portraits of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (circa 1565-1644) and Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), signed and dated 1635, are intimate portrayals of relatives of the artist and provide a unique insight into Rembrandt’s activity as a painter within his inner circle. With a virtually unbroken line of provenance, these pictures have remained completely unknown to scholars ever since. They returned to Christie’s in this sale after an extensive scholarly investigation and scientific analysis undertaken at the Rijksmuseum.
The sale continues….full results will follow. Please be aware this is one of a series of three important Classic Week sales taking place today, it is followed immediately Remastered: Old Masters from the Collection of J.E. Safra; full information will be available later today when all sales have concluded. Classic Week as a whole continues until 14 July.
Christie’s holds the world auction record for Rembrandt, which was set in 2009 when Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo sold for £20,201,250. In 2016, Christie’s facilitated one of the most important private sales in history with two masterpieces by Rembrandt Van Rijn secured for the Louvre & the Rijksmuseum.
