The painting was rediscovered in December 2009 after being off public display for around forty years.[1] It was purchased by Steve Wynn at Christie's in December 2009 for £20 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting by Rembrandt.[2][3] In 2011 it was purchased by Isabel and Alfred Bader. They offered it for sale at the 2011 TEFAF art show in Maastricht for 47 million euros.[4][5] The Baders donated the painting to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in December 2015.[6]
Provenance
This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1915, who wrote: "827a. A Dutch Admiral. Exhibited at the British Institution, London, 1847, No. 45. In the collection of George Folliot."[7] It was sold in May 1930 from the Folliot collection, but was in the Columbia University art collection when Horst Gerson cataloged it in 1968.[8] It was purchased for a reputed $185,000 by Huntington Hartford, of A & P supermarket chain wealth, who donated it to the university in 1958.[9]
