Museums: The Fogg's Find

With major Rembrandts bringing up to $4,448 per sq. in. at public auction, the odds against finding one at bargain-basement prices is—well—something like the nth power of a googolplex. But the bare possibility can turn the most level-headed curator into a creature half Hawkshaw, half Walter Mitty. Such was the spine-tingling predicament of Harvard's Fine Arts Chairman Seymour Slive. On a busman's holiday to Los Angeles, he had been casually shown an unsigned 17th century oil sketch, The Head of Christ, at the Paul Kantor Gallery. The glimpse proved unforgettable. Recalls Slive: "The left side of the face looks...