Actually, Stolen Rembrandt Sketch May Not Be A Rembrandt
After recovered from an Encino church, the Rembrandt sketch that was heisted from the Marina del Rey Ritz-Carlton is under a new investigation. Is "The Judgment" in fact a Rembrandt?
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department, according to the LA Times, is expanding their theft investigation to confirm whether or not the sketch was indeed penned and inked by the Dutch artist.
According to the drawing's owner, the Bay Area-based Linearis Institute, the pen-and-ink drawing called "The Judgment" is a signed work of the 17th century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn, completed in 1655 and worth $250,000.
Of the curators, art historians and other preeminent Rembrandt experts contacted by The Times, not one was familiar with the drawing. Gary Schwartz, "one of the world's top Rembrandt scholars and director emeritus of CODART, the international council of curators of Dutch and Flemish art," believes that the drawing was never published in scholarly literature on Rembrandt.
Most experts, in smart attempts to avoid sparking controversy, declined to comment publicly about a piece of art they had never seen vis-à-vis, but many expressed doubts of its authenticity.
Dr. Martin Royalton-Kisch, retired curator of Dutch drawings at the British Museum, said in an email that based on the style of the drawing, "It's clearly (in my personal opinion) a work of Rembrandt's school rather than by Rembrandt himself."
Representatives of the Linearis Institute have yet to comment
