Basement Painting In Omaha: A Rembrandt!

No, it’s not a headline from this week’s “Antiques Roadshow.” A painting long-ago relegated to storage has been newly authenticated as a work by Rembrandt. In the collection of the Josyln Art Museum in Omaha, Neb., for 72 years, the painting was put away a decade ago. A recent reassessment by Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering has given the work new life as by the 17th century Dutch master himself. “Portrait of Dirck van Os” will go on display in May. It was purchased by the museum in 1942 from a private collection as a true Rembrandt, until a scholarly movement to authenticate which works were by Rembrandt and which were done by his students or circle reclassified the picture as by “the circle.”

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