Wynn buys rediscovered Rembrandt self-portrait for more than $11 mil.

Thursday, July 10, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

LONDON -- A Rembrandt self-portrait that went unrecognized for more than three centuries sold at auction today for $11.3 million, a record auction price for a self-study by the Dutch master, Sotheby's said.

Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn bought the work and said he would put it on display in his Wynn Collection gallery at the former Desert Inn resort "the day it gets here." He said he already has begun the process of obtaining an export permit for the piece.

"They've got enough Rembrandts in the Netherlands," Wynn quipped in an interview this morning. "I decided we needed one here in Las Vegas."

Wynn said the portrait is approximately life size, "so it's just like you're looking into the eyes of one of the geniuses of the 17th century."

The Rembrandt piece is somewhat of a departure for Wynn, who primarily collects early modern art from the late 19th century.

"But when I saw it, I knew it was something people would want to see, so they could look at something from one of the great masters from 200 years before," Wynn said. "It's wonderful to have a self-portrait of Rembrandt, even when he was a young man."

He said the painting was in Las Vegas for two days about two months ago "so that I could get a really good look at it," but the developer of the Wynn Las Vegas resort -- formerly Le Reve -- didn't tell many people it was here.

Wynn marveled at how Las Vegas is developing into a center where people can view important art pieces, citing his own collection and that of Guggenheim gallery at the Venetian hotel-casino.

"It used to be that you would have to go to New York or Chicago to see some of these pieces," Wynn said. "Now, you can walk on the east side of the Strip and get hit with some pretty serious art."

Wynn's newest piece had been largely overpainted by a Rembrandt pupil and was only recently cleaned and revealed to be the great artist's self-portrait, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The signed painting depicts Rembrandt at age 28 and is dated 1634, the spokeswoman said.

She added it was "100 percent certain" that the price Wynn paid was a record for a Rembrandt self-portrait sold at auction, though she could not give a figure for the previous highest price. Other Rembrandt paintings have recently sold for more than $30 million.

The work auctioned today is one of about 40 surviving self-portraits painted by Rembrandt, although there are some 40 others that are etched or drawn, Sotheby's said.

It was likely painted over in Rembrandt's studio less than five years after the artist completed the work. The altered painting depicted a Russian nobleman in a tall Russian hat, with long hair, a mustache, a goatee beard, a fur cape and gold chains, and the original self-portrait remained hidden for 365 years.

It was identified as a Rembrandt self-study only after the Rembrandt Research Project, a group of scholars whose task is to authenticate the hundreds of paintings by the 17th-century master, began investigating the piece in 1995 at the request of its owner. Sotheby's said the owner was a descendant of Paul Page, a French art collector and dealer, but did not give further details.

Although the portrait clearly resembled Rembrandt and bore his signature, the researchers at first felt it could not be genuine because it lacked the master's finesse. It took them six years to remove the layers of added paint with a scalpel.

The restored portrait shows the artist with medium-length curly hair, a slightly upturned mustache and a beret, and features dramatic diagonal lighting. In it, Rembrandt van Rijn, who lived from 1606 to 1669, has the familiar round chin and gentle eyes of many other self portraits.

The Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam announced last January that the wood-panel painting, measuring 44.3 by 34.5 inches, had been identified as a Rembrandt self-portrait. It was put on display at the museum for several months.

The Wynn Collection features 19th- and 20th-century American and European masterpieces, including works by Picasso, Manet and Matisse. Its owner, who bid for the Rembrandt painting by phone, founded Mirage Resorts, which was sold to MGM Grand, creating MGM MIRAGE. Wynn is now developing his Strip property and another in the Chinese city of Macau.

Sotheby's said the painting auctioned today is one of only three painted self-portraits by Rembrandt that are privately owned.

One of the other two belongs to the Duke of Sutherland and is on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. The third is in a private collection that has not been revealed, but the painting has been depicted in an art book, Sotheby's said.