Painting Attributed to Rembrandt Found Tucked Away Inside an Attic in Maine

For many years, a forgotten 17th-century painting had been stored in an attic in Maine. According to a label on the back of the frame, the piece—titled Portrait of a Girl—was the work of Rembrandt, the renowned Dutch master. A few weeks ago, the rediscovered artwork sold for $1.41 million at auction.

Kaja Veilleux, an art appraiser and auctioneer, found the piece during a routine “house call” to a private estate in Cambden, Maine, per a statement from Thomaston Place Auction Galleries.

“On house calls, we often go in blind, not knowing what we’ll find,” Veilleux, who owns the auction house, tells the Associated Press. “The home was filled with wonderful pieces, but it was in the attic, among stacks of art, that we found this remarkable portrait.”

Veilleux discovered the piece “tucked away” alongside a “collection of heirlooms and antiques” near the end of his visit, according to the statement. The auction house says the painting “displayed impeccable preservation for its age.”

Painted on an oak panel and mounted in a hand-carved gold Dutch frame, Portrait of a Girl depicts a teenager wearing a ruffled white collar and a cap. The piece had been in private family ownership since the 1920s, per the AP. The label says that it had been loaned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1970. Nobody knows how it made its way to the attic.

“That’s part of the mystery,” Veilleux tells the New York Times’ Claire Moses, adding: “It’s a good thing we found it. Anyone else wouldn’t have known what to do with it.”

During the auction on August 24, three phone bidders “aggressively” pursued the artwork, reports NBC News’ David K. Li. Ultimately, an unnamed European collector landed the piece for $1.41 million.

“Out of all the phone bids I’ve handled, I never imagined I’d help close a deal for over a million dollars,” says Zebulon Casperson, who represented the unnamed winning European bidder, in the statement. “It feels like a shared victory.”

Artworks of this kind are rarely discovered in the United States, Veilleux tells Bonnie Bishop of WMTW-TV, a local TV station in Portland, Maine. “Usually they’re found in Europe, because that’s where most of them were,” he adds. “But this one made its way to America.”

Portrait of a Girl hasn’t yet been authenticated. But if experts are able to authenticate it, its value will likely be much higher.

“The person who bought the painting for $1.4 million already got a great bargain,” Mark Winter, an authentication expert, tells the Times. “The value of this painting is probably in the area of $15 million.”

For decades, Winter’s art authentication business has been hearing from people who think they may be in possession of a Rembrandt, but they are often disappointed. As Winter tells the Times, “We don’t discover new paintings by Rembrandt every day.”

Ella Feldman | READ MORE

Ella Malena Feldman is a writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. She examines art, culture and gender in her work, which has appeared in Washington City Paper, DCist and the Austin American-Statesman.