Businessman is held over theft of ‘Rembrandt’

 
Justin Davenport22 June 2012
WEST END FINAL

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Art experts were today re-examining an oil painting suspected of being a multi-million-pound Rembrandt after it was recovered in a raid in south London.

A businessman in his sixties was arrested for handling stolen goods during a Scotland Yard operation.

Detectives from the Yard’s specialist crime directorate made the find during a long-running investigation aimed at recovering assets from criminals.

A painting by the 17th-century Dutch master is thought to have been seized in the raid on premises in Croydon High Street. It has now been sent for experts to check on its authenticity.

The arrested businessman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, lives in Surrey.

A value of £2 million has been mentioned for the recovered piece. But security expert Richard Ellis, who has worked with the Met’s specialist Arts and Antiques Squad, said: “If this is a genuine Rembrandt oil painting I think that £2 million would be a massive under-valuation. If you were to put one before an auction today it would fetch £30-£50million.”

Rembrandt, who lived from 1606 to 1669, was the greatest Dutch painter of his age.

His paintings often attract huge prices — and 205 of his works are missing. In 2009 his Portrait Of A Man with Arms Akimbo sold at auction for £20.2 million at Christie’s in London.

Some of his works have also been the target of thieves. His painting The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA, in 1990.

It is unclear which of his works has been recovered by police in Croydon.

The Yard said today: “A man in his sixties was arrested in south London on June 11 in connection with an ongoing Proceeds of Crime Act investigation. He has been bailed to return to a south London police station on a date in July pending further enquiries. A number of items have been seized.”

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