The Market: Rembrandt Standard

Rembrandt is having a bully time of it these days. Fortnight ago at London’s Christie’s, his son, Titus, brought the second-largest price of any painting ever auctioned (only $64,000 less than the Metropolitan’s $2,300,000 Aristotle). Last week, at the rival auction house of Sotheby & Co., his plump wife, Saskia as Minerva, brought $350,000, followed by a stunning study of an old man from the collection of U.S. Tin Plate Magnate William B. Leeds, which was knocked down for $392,000. Titus had given Christie’s an alltime auction record of $3,321,581; the two Rembrandts helped bring Sotheby’s total for the day to $2,591,400, a new record for old masters at that house. All of which led the New York Times to suggest that the art standard might soon replace the gold standard. It might not be a bad idea: every bank note could carry a Rembrandt reproduction.