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Child with a Soap Bubble—NOT a Rembrandt—Recovered After 15 years

March 20, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Rembrandt - The Child and the Soap Bubble E40

After 15 years missing, this Rembrandt painting was found when two men tried to sell it in France.

Two people have been arrested after being found in possession of the Dutch master’s “Child with a Soap Bubble” painting, which was valued at 20 million francs at the time of the theft, the source said. This equates to roughly 3.9 million euros ($5.4 million) today. The artwork was stolen from a museum in the nearby city of Draguignan in July 1999.

Update: The Tribune de l’Art points out:

Contrary to what you can currently read everywhere in the press, it is not a Rembrandt painting that was found by ‘OCBC after being flown there fifteen years at the Museum of Draguignan in the Var. Only Vincent Noce, in Libération , carefully explains that the work ” appears far too low to be the hand of the genius of Amsterdam  “and that he”  would rather a table inspired by him, even showing rather typical coquetry of the eighteenth century  “(but the title of the article describes still a Rembrandt was found …). Jacques Foucart, former curator of the Nordic paintings at the Louvre, we contacted, we confirmed it is actually an eighteenth century French painting inspired Rembrandtesque to be between artists like Santerre Raoux or around Grimou 1 . A certainly interesting work, but incommensurate with the potential importance of a Rembrandt painting. 

French police recover Rembrandt stolen 15 years ago (AFP)

A Stolen Painting Found in Draguignan but Not a Rembrandt (Tribune de l’art)

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Filed Under: Fraud, Theft & Restitution

About Marion Maneker

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