The City Art Museum of St. Louis put a mighty fine and correspondingly expensive new acquisition on show. It was a Portrait of a Young Man by Rembrandt, bought from the collection of London's late Otto Gutekunst for $130,000. The museum is tax-supported, but private citizens had pitched in $37,500 to help close its biggest deal.
On opening day, 3,000 people piled in for a look at the picture. Few disagreed with the experts' contention that it was worth what it cost. A product of Rembrandt's last, dirt-poor years, it glowed with a human warmth and depth that his earlier, slicker works...