17th-century Dutch master’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple to go on display this week
It hung unrecognised on the wall of a private home for decades but now a 17th-century painting has been revealed as a Rembrandt, taking its potential value from thousands to millions of pounds.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced on Monday that it had rediscovered an early biblical scene by the Dutch master that was once thought lost, thanks to hi-tech scanning and two years of expert analysis.
Since the 1960s, Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, dated 1633, had been attributed to Rembrandt’s “workshop”, meaning it was believed to have been created by a lesser-known artist such as Jan Lievens or Salomon Koninck.
But in fact it was a work of the old master, the Dutch museum announced, as it prepared to exhibit the painting this week. Taco Dibbits, the general director of the Rijksmuseum, said it was approached several years ago by a couple who had inherited a modest-looking painting from their father.
