A painting attributed to the Dutch Golden Age artist Rembrandt went under the hammer for a record-breaking $1.175 million ($1.41 million including the buyer’s premium) after it was unearthed from an attic in a home in Camden, Maine. The sale was held by Thomaston Place Auction Galleries during the second day of its Summer Grandeur auction on August 26.
The painting was recovered during a routine house call for the auction house, reportedly discovered with no surface damage and in remarkable condition considering its age. It was noted to have an established family provenance as well.
“I’ve been doing this for 53 years, making these house calls across New England, and we’ve never come across a find like this,” said Thomaston Place Auction Galleries Founder and Appraiser Kaja Veilleux in a phone call with Hyperallergic.
“We were invited to an old farmhouse in Camden to go through a private estate and pick out what was valuable, and we went through every floor before coming across this painting,” he continued.
Depicting a teenage girl in black clothing with a white ruff around her neck and a translucent bonnet covering her hair, the painting was done on cradled oak panel and accompanied by a hand-carved Dutch frame with a golden sheen. Though it was unsigned, the painting has a label on the back of its frame attributing the work to Rembrandt and indicating that it had been on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for an exhibition in 1970.
Veilleux told Hyperallergic that a fierce bidding war ensued between nine callers over the phone, pushing six-figure offers for the painting higher and higher. The work eventually landed up with a private collector from England, becoming what the auction house says may be the most expensive artwork ever sold publicly in Maine.
