Christie's to auction Rembrandt masterpiece in July

PanARMENIAN.Net - Christie's will offer 15 works from the "Golden Age" of Dutch painting at an auction in July, including a "masterpiece" by Rembrandt which it expects to fetch as much as 12 million pounds ($19 million), Reuters reported.

The works, owned by the Dutch collectors and philanthropists Pieter and Olga Dreesmann, will go under the hammer in London on July 3 as part of the auctioneer's old masters and British paintings evening sale.

The combined value of the works, billed as the most important single-owner collection of Dutch 17th century masters to come to auction in recent years, has been estimated at over 19 million pounds.

The highlight of the collection is Rembrandt's "A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap" dated 1626/7 and valued at between eight and 12 million pounds.

Christie's said its relatively small size did not detract from its intensity, created by Rembrandt's use of light and shade that pointed to his stylistic debt to Italian painter Caravaggio.

The work was exhibited in the "Rembrandt/Caravaggio" exhibition at The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2006.

Another highlight of the sale is expected to be Willem van de Velde II's "Shipping in a Calm" seascape estimated to be worth 2.5-3.5 million pounds.

The collection will go on an international tour before it is sold, starting in Doha in March and taking in Moscow, New York, Amsterdam, London and probably Hong Kong.