Rembrandt, “Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet,” 1657, Penrhyn Castle, Bangor, Wales
More than a year ago, the Rijksmuseum revealed that it hoped to buy one of the finest Rembrandt portraits in private hands, “Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet” (above), then on loan to the museum from Penrhyn Castle, North Wales. According to Martin Bailey‘s story last year in The Art Newspaper, the price was expected to be about £40 million.
Now, according to today’s story in Expatica Netherlands, the museum has only managed to raise almost £26.4 million (about EUR 34 million or $52.3 million) and the sale is off:
A spokesperson for the museum in Amsterdam reported this Wednesday [that] after more than six months of negotiations, the museum has decided against
the purchase because “the expectations of the selling party continue to
be too high, according to the experts.”The Rijksmuseum had
already secured financial support from the Ministry of Education,
Culture & Science, several funds, companies and private individuals
to purchase the Rembrandt.
I found nothing about this development on the museum’s website, but I did learn about two imminent changes in admininstration there: Taco Dibbits becomes the Rijksmuseum’s director of collections on May 31, succeeding Peter Sigmond; Wim Pijbes becomes its director general on July 1, succeeding Ronald de Leeuw.
In the meantime…anyone wanna buy a great Rembrandt? Of course, you’ll probably have to deal with that pesky British export permit delay, which will give U.K. institutions the chance to match your price.