These two Rembrandt portraits owned by members of the Rothschild family were rumored to be for sale earlier this Spring. Now it seems the the Rijksmuseum and Dutch government have agreed on a price to acquire the pair of portraits still in the family’s hands:

The preliminary sale agreement was signed last week.The government pulls the bag for 80 million , for the other 80 million , the Rijksmuseum will look . “If we do not buy them now , we run the risk of a rich oil sheik buy the paintings and they disappear forever from Europe ,” reported Minister Jet Bussemaker of Culture on Monday NPO Radio 1 .

The minister’s justification for spending the money is curious given the fact that the works had “disappeared” into France for nearly two centuries.

‘Kabinet en Rijksmuseum kopen Rembrandt-duo’ | Beeldende Kunst | de Volkskrant