A Rembrandt Found?

A small oil painting of three people, one of them a fainting lady, went up for auction recently.

No big deal in art circles -- valued at $500-800.  (It had some damage, too.)

Only, after research, some believe it to be the missing "Sense of Smell" in a series based on the Five Senses, painted by a young Rembrandt c.1625.

It sold for $870,000 on Sept. 22 at Nye & Company's auction in New Jersey.


"The painting had been noticed by some in the trade... the pictures are considered to be the very first paintings made by the Old Master, possibly done while still a student in the studio of the Dutch painter Pieter Lastman." Three others in the series are owned by museums or collectors: "The Operation (Sense of Touch);" "Three Singers (Sense of Hearing);" and "The Spectacle Seller (Sense of Sight)."


More here, via the Appraiser Workshops site. Yow.