Rembrandt’s rare design on the verge of breaking records; “Young Lion” will be 20 million dollars?

A rare Rembrandt drawing poised to become one of the most expensive works on paper ever auctioned will go on display in Saudi Arabia this week ahead of a sensational sale in New York, ISNA reported.

The work, titled “Young Lion at Rest” (ca. 1638-1643), will be sold at Sotheby’s New York on February 4th, where it is expected to fetch between $15 million and $20 million. If this prediction comes true, the value of this design will be far higher than the current record of auctioned designs of this artist. The current record for the most expensive design by this artist belongs to a $3.7 million design.

The “Young Resting Lion” design will be sold while it has been introduced by Sotheby’s auction as the most important Rembrandt design that has reached the market in the last half century.

“Rembrandt van Rijn” is so famous that even today we call this master Dutch painter by his first name. He created paintings with various subjects, including landscape and historical and mythological scenes, and was a prominent figure in Dutch art for most of the 17th century. In addition to creating some of the most important group portraits of the Dutch Golden Age, he left about 80 self-portraits in the form of paintings and drawings.

It is believed that “Rembrandt” designed this work from a living animal. This painting is from the collection of “Thomas S. Kaplan” and “Daphne Ricanati Kaplan”, who own the largest private collection of Rembrandt works in the world (including 17 paintings). In total, this couple keeps about 220 works of Dutch masters in their “Leiden Collection”.

The short public display of this design in “Dariyyah” takes place while “Sotheby’s” expands its presence in Saudi Arabia after holding its first auction in this country. This work has already traveled to Paris, London, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. The “Rembrandt” design show will coincide with the opening of the preview exhibition of the second Sotheby’s auction in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, titled “Origins II” on January 31. This auction includes works by Pablo Picasso, Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol and Middle Eastern artists. The auction house held its first auction in the country, titled “Origins”, in February last year, which grossed $17 million.

“Arab News” wrote, this design will be exhibited in “Dariyah” from January 24 to 25.