Sotheby’s will offer a rediscovered Rembrandt night scene for £10mn-£15mn as a highlight of its Old Masters sale in London this December. The small, nearly monochromatic work — “The Adoration of the Kings” (now dated c1628) — was catalogued as Circle of Rembrandt at Christie’s in Amsterdam in 2021 and estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Others thought it might be the real thing, helping the work then sell for €860,000 (including fees).
Its buyer subsequently contacted Sotheby’s and the auction house has spent 18 months researching the work, including detailed infrared imaging. The conclusion is that it is “not just by Rembrandt, but is a really significant Rembrandt”, says George Gordon, Sotheby’s co-chair of Old Master paintings and drawings. Leading scholars, including Volker Manuth, who co-wrote the 2019 catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s paintings, support the auction house’s views. The research has revealed changes that Rembrandt made while painting, including moving the protagonists’ heads towards the holy family, to create a more pronounced focal point. “We can see how his mind was working,” Gordon says. He also highlights the artist’s command of reflected light from two sources — a warm, interior one and the cooler Star of Bethlehem. Known as a Rembrandt until the 1950s, the work “completely disappeared” from records in the intervening decades, most likely because the only available photograph did not do it justice, Gordon says. It comes to auction on December 6 and has a third-party guarantee.
Deutsche Bank has revealed details of the art projects for its new UK headquarters at 21 Moorfields in the City of London, opening next March. As well as showing about 1,200 works from its collection (which numbers about 50,000 globally), the bank has commissioned wall-works by three emerging British artists — Simeon Barclay, Rene Matić and Claire Hooper — all of whom responded to a theme of inclusivity. Matić, for example, will produce 20 large-scale photographs for display across three floors, from their flags for countries that don’t exist but bodies that do series. This explores the complicated notion of Britishness through the daily life of urban communities.
