Art "Detectives" Probe £3,000 Find Art Restorer Is Sure It Is Lost Rembrandt: Art restorer Mr. Reg Winder went to look some free picture frames. He came away with a portrait which has now been insured for £30,000. The picture used to hang on the study wall in the Palace Terrace-gardens, Kensington, home of Major Hubert C. Coriette, late of the 1st King Edward's Horse. It was the Coriette family joke, father's insistence that the portrait, on a young woman, was a Rembrandt. No one believed he was right, until yesterday, 18 months after Major Coriette died and 52 years after it was bought for £5 in London, when are experts said: "Tests have proved it could be a Rembrandt. If it is, it will be one of the most interesting of them all - the first portrait of the woman who became his wife. The £30,000 insurance has been out pending conclusive examination. Already there has been a double probe into its authenticity. Major Coriette, architect of many public buildings, including the Kensington War Memorial, was given the portrait by his wife in 1905. After his death in April last year - he was 85 - it went with other property to a converted garage store in Clapham. It was there that Mr. Winder, of Marylebone, went to look at the picture frames which the Coriette "Father's Rembrandt" At once he suspected it to be an original painting of Saskia, Rembrandt's wealthy wife. Mr Windsor took the portrait to his studio where his partner, Mr Stewart Goodhall, started to work on it. Photo shows The Portrait of Saskia - in detail.
Photo measures 8 x 10 inches.
Photo is dated 10-10-1957.
Photo back:
