This idea of a rediscovered work of Rembrandt reminds me of a story a good friend of mine told me. His father was a nationally known professor of engineering, a brilliant guy, and his mother was an award winning poet. I know the dad went to Europe in the early 1950s, not sure if the mom was with him, but he went bargain shopping. He apparently had all sorts of historically interesting items but he was a pack rat so it was scattered all over the house.
One day my friend was visiting and he moved a stack of paper to make room and he noticed several sketches. His dad said 'oh, those are my Rembrandt sketches' like it was nothing.
My pal was a bit of a BS artist but I knew his dad so it was believable, he was an interesting cat. Anyway, when the dad died, his estate was auctioned off by Cristies so I guess it was true, there was some high end stuff in that old house.
