Rembrandt Fake or Fortune?


Rembrandt

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Rembrandt. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

19 million.

0:00:020:00:03

The art world.

0:00:030:00:04

Glamour, wealth, intrigue.

0:00:040:00:08

95. Selling at 95 million.

0:00:080:00:11

Beneath the surface, there's a darker place,

0:00:110:00:15

a world of high stakes and gambles.

0:00:150:00:18

International art dealer Philip Mould knows the risks.

0:00:200:00:24

He hunts down sleepers -

0:00:240:00:26

paintings that hide dark secrets.

0:00:260:00:29

In the past, we looked at pictures.

0:00:290:00:31

Now, almost, you can look through them.

0:00:310:00:33

Paint almost acts like blood at a crime scene.

0:00:330:00:36

I'm Fiona Bruce, and I have over 20 years' experience as a journalist.

0:00:390:00:42

Every picture tells its own story,

0:00:420:00:46

and it's up to us to try and uncover it.

0:00:460:00:49

We're teaming up to investigate

0:00:490:00:51

the human dramas and mysterious tales locked in paint.

0:00:510:00:55

It's a world that spans continents.

0:00:590:01:01

It can take you anywhere at any moment.

0:01:010:01:04

Less than 24 hours ago, I was in London.

0:01:040:01:06

Suddenly, I had to drop everything and fly all the way down here

0:01:060:01:10

to Cape Town in South Africa, to pick up a painting that could be

0:01:100:01:13

by one of the world's great masters, by Rembrandt.

0:01:130:01:16

But whoever's painted it,

0:01:160:01:18

I do know it has a dark and fascinating history.

0:01:180:01:22

Wow, look at the difference now.

0:01:220:01:24

Look at that picture now.

0:01:240:01:26

This painting will bring us within touching distance

0:01:260:01:29

of one of the greatest artists that ever lived.

0:01:290:01:32

It's a bit like a religious ritual, by which you anoint the picture.

0:01:320:01:36

It will require an investigation that reaches into the highest ranks of Nazi Germany...

0:01:360:01:41

This almost certainly relates to the forced sale of the picture.

0:01:410:01:44

..and test our team to its limits.

0:01:440:01:46

This is getting so complicated.

0:01:460:01:50

This story began with an excited call from Philip.

0:02:020:02:06

I needed to see him at base, quickly.

0:02:060:02:10

His head of research, Dr Bendor Grosvenor, was waiting,

0:02:100:02:14

and time was not on our side.

0:02:140:02:16

So, why have you got me here in such a hurry?

0:02:160:02:19

The best way of explaining that is for you to see the picture. Bendor?

0:02:190:02:24

This emerged a few days ago. Bendor found it on the computer.

0:02:240:02:27

It's a picture coming up for sale in South Africa, in Cape Town.

0:02:270:02:31

It looked interesting, so we decided to look into it.

0:02:310:02:34

It looked like something that could be a very good spec,

0:02:340:02:37

as we say in the trade.

0:02:370:02:40

What caught my eye is this looks like a period painting

0:02:400:02:43

done almost 400 years ago, but the estimate is only £800.

0:02:430:02:47

Which is astonishingly cheap.

0:02:470:02:49

Yes, fantastically cheap for a pretty good picture from the period.

0:02:490:02:52

The second thing that caught my eye is the guy's face.

0:02:520:02:57

-I seem to remember I've seen it before somewhere.

-You just remembered the look of this chap?

0:02:570:03:01

Yes. As a bit of a portrait anorak, I try and remember faces as much as possible.

0:03:010:03:06

So I went through some old catalogues. Here he is -

0:03:060:03:09

the same sitter, I think, in two paintings by Rembrandt himself.

0:03:090:03:13

So you're doing all this to try and show

0:03:130:03:15

that that painting up for sale in South Africa

0:03:150:03:17

is perhaps not just by a follower of Rembrandt,

0:03:170:03:20

-but by Rembrandt himself?

-It could be by Rembrandt, but, at the very least,

0:03:200:03:24

we're dealing with a painting that was painted in his circle

0:03:240:03:28

or possibly in his studio, and maybe by the master himself.

0:03:280:03:31

So, this is an interesting picture,

0:03:310:03:34

it's a picture of considerable quality,

0:03:340:03:36

but it was in the process of looking into it that a darker side emerged.

0:03:360:03:41

Oh?

0:03:410:03:43

This painting was sold at auction in 1935 in Berlin

0:03:450:03:48

and it came, it says here, from the Van Diemen Gallery.

0:03:480:03:52

The Van Diemen Gallery belonged to the Oppenheimers,

0:03:520:03:55

and the Oppenheimers were Jews,

0:03:550:03:57

forced to flee when the Nazis came to power.

0:03:570:04:00

All of their stock was seized by the Nazis

0:04:000:04:02

and placed under the administration of one of Goering's right-hand men

0:04:020:04:06

and sold at auction for a fraction of its value.

0:04:060:04:10

Ah, I'm beginning to get the idea.

0:04:100:04:12

So this painting that is up for sale in South Africa

0:04:120:04:15

almost certainly is in fact a stolen painting, stolen by the Nazis?

0:04:150:04:19

Mmm. It's almost certainly what we call a spoliated painting,

0:04:190:04:23

-which is in effect stolen.

-Gosh.

0:04:230:04:26

There's absolutely nothing to suggest at this stage at all

0:04:260:04:29

that the people who are selling this know about it,

0:04:290:04:32

nor indeed do the auction house know about its history.

0:04:320:04:34

-How long till this thing goes up for sale?

-It's 4:00 now.

0:04:340:04:38

-This picture's coming up when, Bendor?

-4:00 tomorrow.

0:04:380:04:42

-24 hours.

-Right.

0:04:420:04:44

So we need to find some answers, and fast.

0:04:440:04:47

Is the picture in South Africa just a modern copy?

0:04:470:04:52

Did it belong to the Oppenheimers?

0:04:520:04:54

I'm keen to find out more about them.

0:04:540:04:56

They owned the Van Diemen Gallery that had the picture in the '30s.

0:04:560:05:00

Living in Berlin at that time,

0:05:000:05:01

Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer would have witnessed the rise of Nazism.

0:05:010:05:05

They fled from Berlin in April 1933 and went to Paris.

0:05:050:05:10

I guess they thought they'd be safe there.

0:05:100:05:12

But in 1940, Hitler invaded France.

0:05:130:05:16

Now, Jakob died in Nice in 1941.

0:05:170:05:21

Rosa was sent to a concentration camp. She died at Auschwitz in 1943.

0:05:220:05:26

Somehow, their children survived.

0:05:280:05:30

So, they do have living descendants,

0:05:300:05:33

who may have a claim on this painting.

0:05:330:05:35

Well, since the 1935 auction,

0:05:370:05:39

the Oppenheimers' pictures have been scattered all over the world.

0:05:390:05:43

But early in 2009,

0:05:430:05:44

the descendants of the Oppenheimers found three of those paintings.

0:05:440:05:48

They were in a museum in California, and the State of California

0:05:480:05:51

has since decided to return those pictures to the Oppenheimer family.

0:05:510:05:55

Here is the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger,

0:05:550:05:58

standing beside two of the descendants,

0:05:580:06:01

Peter Bloch on the left

0:06:010:06:03

and Inge Blackshear on the right,

0:06:030:06:06

at the ceremony when they returned the paintings.

0:06:060:06:10

But in this murky world, the laws about returning paintings,

0:06:100:06:13

or restituting them, as it's known, differ from country to country.

0:06:130:06:17

To avoid getting bogged down in the legalities, I need some advice.

0:06:170:06:21

Next morning, I visit Anne Webber of the Looted Art Commission in London.

0:06:210:06:24

You would think that things that were stolen, if everybody's agreed

0:06:240:06:28

that they were taken under terrible circumstances,

0:06:280:06:31

you should be able to get them back wherever they are.

0:06:310:06:34

But no. The justice you get depends on the accident of geography.

0:06:340:06:37

The accident of where the work of art has come to rest.

0:06:370:06:40

In this case, we know that there is a lawyer who represents the Oppenheimer family.

0:06:400:06:45

She's a French lawyer living in Paris, or working from Paris,

0:06:450:06:48

and the right thing to do is to contact her,

0:06:480:06:51

ask her, "Is this painting on your list of missing paintings?"

0:06:510:06:55

And then to see what she would like to do about it.

0:06:550:06:58

Back at base, we're sending the limited information we have on the painting to the lawyer in Paris.

0:06:580:07:04

We can't stop the auction ourselves. We have no claim on the painting,

0:07:070:07:12

and with only five hours left till bidding starts,

0:07:120:07:15

we need to know if she's able to stop the sale.

0:07:150:07:19

-'Bonjour.'

-Ah, bonjour. Puis-je parler avec Eva Sterzing?

0:07:220:07:25

'Yes. Hold the line, please.'

0:07:250:07:27

MUSIC PLAYS

0:07:270:07:29

My guess is that Eva Sterzing's busy looking into her records.

0:07:310:07:34

She's only had the details for about half an hour,

0:07:340:07:37

so I can hardly expect her to come up with an immediate answer.

0:07:370:07:40

And I bet you she'll be surprised.

0:07:400:07:43

Hello. Is that Eva Sterzing?

0:07:450:07:47

Hi, this is Philip Mould.

0:07:470:07:49

How are you?

0:07:490:07:51

Have you received the information that I've sent you?

0:07:510:07:54

As I understand it, there is no guarantee,

0:08:160:08:19

far from it, that the auction house will withdraw this picture, so...

0:08:190:08:23

This is all a bit of a gamble.

0:08:380:08:40

Raising questions over the painting's past

0:08:400:08:43

could mire it in lengthy legal disputes.

0:08:430:08:46

The owner may dispose of the picture secretly,

0:08:460:08:48

so it just disappears from sight.

0:08:480:08:51

It's still showing it for sale,

0:08:510:08:54

but sometimes these things move quite slowly.

0:08:540:08:57

I wouldn't like to be told that my picture was Nazi booty, would you?

0:08:570:09:03

What I'm finding rather frustrating is you and I know that this picture

0:09:030:09:07

is considerably more interesting than it appears on the screen.

0:09:070:09:11

I still want to get my hands on it.

0:09:110:09:13

It's frustrating to wait, knowing there's nothing more we can do.

0:09:150:09:19

PHONE RINGS

0:09:190:09:22

Hi.

0:09:220:09:25

Do you have some news?

0:09:250:09:27

I'll come through now.

0:09:270:09:28

Hi. Just had a call from Rudd's in South Africa,

0:09:300:09:34

and the picture has been withdrawn.

0:09:340:09:36

So the lawyer's letter has clearly had an effect.

0:09:360:09:39

Must have done. They didn't give any reasons.

0:09:390:09:41

They just said something about an ownership dispute.

0:09:410:09:45

Thankfully, we've managed to stop the auction.

0:09:530:09:56

Now, two questions need answering.

0:09:560:09:58

I'm desperate to discover who painted the picture.

0:10:000:10:03

Could it be by Rembrandt?

0:10:030:10:05

And I want to know who the rightful owner is.

0:10:060:10:09

To investigate, we need more than a computer image.

0:10:090:10:12

We need the painting itself.

0:10:120:10:14

So, one overnight flight later, here I am in Cape Town.

0:10:140:10:18

I've been given permission to take the picture temporarily for testing in Europe.

0:10:180:10:23

While I'm here, I can find out more about the painting

0:10:230:10:26

and its owner from the auctioneer, Charles Rudd.

0:10:260:10:29

-Hi, I'm Fiona Bruce. Charles, I presume.

-Yes, welcome to Rudd's.

0:10:290:10:33

-Nice to see you.

-So, where is it?

0:10:330:10:35

Right here. Follow me.

0:10:350:10:37

After you.

0:10:400:10:42

How exciting. I'm the first one to have a good look at it.

0:10:420:10:46

Absolutely.

0:10:460:10:47

Well, I have to say, when I saw it on the computer back in London,

0:10:490:10:54

I was expecting something smaller, and, actually, not as vivid as this.

0:10:540:10:57

-Yes.

-I was worried that I might be slightly unimpressed by it,

0:10:570:11:01

but, actually, I think it's rather wonderful.

0:11:010:11:04

Yes. I think it's got a lot of pathos,

0:11:040:11:06

and I think there's a lot of feeling in it, as a painting.

0:11:060:11:09

Tell me how you came by it, how this painting came to your attention.

0:11:100:11:14

Well, the owner of this painting,

0:11:140:11:17

we've had dealings with over a couple of years.

0:11:170:11:22

He did take about four of his paintings to another auction house,

0:11:220:11:26

and two of those paintings were unsold at that auction.

0:11:260:11:30

-And this was one of them?

-Yes.

0:11:300:11:32

And is it because he'd failed to sell it before

0:11:320:11:34

-that he put it on at quite a low price?

-Yes.

0:11:340:11:36

He didn't want the painting back,

0:11:360:11:38

and he didn't want them to handle the resale of the painting,

0:11:380:11:41

so he gave it to us and we came to an agreement

0:11:410:11:44

to put what we considered a fair estimate

0:11:440:11:46

to draw some interest to the painting.

0:11:460:11:49

In sterling, it was just about under £1,000, wasn't it?

0:11:490:11:51

Yes.

0:11:510:11:53

I'd very much like to meet the owner while I'm here.

0:11:530:11:57

Is that going to be possible?

0:11:570:11:58

I have asked him whether he would like to attend today,

0:11:580:12:01

but, unfortunately, he didn't feel he wanted to.

0:12:010:12:04

And how did he come by the painting?

0:12:040:12:06

-He inherited it, did he?

-Yes.

0:12:060:12:08

Now, we did know that the owner, Peter Schaary,

0:12:080:12:11

inherited this painting in 1978, and this is written by his father,

0:12:110:12:16

"Bequeathed as a gift to my son." The other thing was...

0:12:160:12:19

I was going to say, that was the first thing I noticed

0:12:190:12:22

when you turned it round.

0:12:220:12:23

-What does this mean?

-We're not sure.

0:12:230:12:26

-It looks like a sort of fascist label.

-It does, instantly.

0:12:260:12:29

As if it had been in some storage warehouse somewhere.

0:12:290:12:32

-Now that is a bit chilling, isn't it?

-Mmm.

0:12:320:12:36

-Philip, it's Fiona.

-'Hello. How are you getting on?'

0:12:390:12:42

Well, I have it in front of me, which is very exciting.

0:12:420:12:46

It's much more... It's much richer, it's much more colourful,

0:12:460:12:50

it's much more interesting as a painting, to my uneducated eye,

0:12:500:12:54

now seeing it in real life. Are there any obvious things

0:12:540:12:57

I should be looking at before we wrap it up?

0:12:570:12:59

'What we do know is, in 1935 when it was measured,

0:13:010:13:06

'the dimensions were approximately 52 by 38cm.'

0:13:060:13:10

Well, it's 51. 50.5... Hang on.

0:13:100:13:15

-Charles is very helpfully measuring it.

-By 38.

0:13:150:13:17

By 38. And you were thinking...

0:13:170:13:20

-'That's good enough.'

-That's good enough, is it? OK. Anything else?

0:13:200:13:24

-'Does it have a gold frame?'

-It does have a gold frame.

0:13:240:13:27

-'Does it look like quite an old frame to you?'

-Well...

0:13:270:13:30

How old would you think it is?

0:13:300:13:32

I think this frame may be from the '60s or '70s.

0:13:320:13:35

Oh, he thinks it might be from the '60s or '70s.

0:13:350:13:37

'May have lost its original frame. Not a problem.

0:13:370:13:40

'From what you've told me,

0:13:400:13:42

'it looks a highly likely picture. So in your situation,

0:13:420:13:46

'I'd wrap it up and take it home.'

0:13:460:13:49

The present owner may not want to meet me,

0:13:490:13:51

but it's a good sign that he's willing to entrust the painting to us to undergo investigation.

0:13:510:13:57

Well, here it is. Yikes! I'm pretty terrified, actually,

0:14:000:14:04

about taking this on a plane back overnight.

0:14:040:14:07

Apparently the guy who brought it to the auction house

0:14:070:14:09

in the first place, who owns it at the moment,

0:14:090:14:11

brought it along the Skeleton Coast of Namibia,

0:14:110:14:14

bouncing around in the back of his Land Rover.

0:14:140:14:17

So who knows? Hopefully, I won't do too bad a job of it.

0:14:170:14:21

In Paris, the Oppenheimers' lawyer can give us more information

0:14:260:14:30

about the possible ownership of the painting.

0:14:300:14:34

Eva Sterzing has spent many years battling to find and return the Oppenheimer collection.

0:14:340:14:38

Two years after they fled Germany, their Van Diemen Gallery

0:14:380:14:43

was put into liquidation by the Nazis.

0:14:430:14:46

The pictures were sold at knockdown prices

0:14:460:14:48

at what's been called Judenauktion, or Jewish auctions.

0:14:480:14:52

Thanks to the Nazis, the paintings, including masterpieces by Titian,

0:14:520:14:57

Van Dyck and Rubens, passed into new hands.

0:14:570:15:00

They were very well-known art dealers

0:15:000:15:04

and they had very fine paintings.

0:15:040:15:07

And then these auctions, which you call Judenauktion...

0:15:070:15:12

..they sold all these paintings.

0:15:140:15:17

I have got this in my catalogues.

0:15:170:15:19

They put a little...little...

0:15:190:15:22

..rosa...

0:15:240:15:26

red stickers like this.

0:15:260:15:28

"Unlimitiert" - without limit.

0:15:280:15:32

Here's one. That's why you call it verschleudern.

0:15:320:15:35

You throw it on the market.

0:15:350:15:39

Because in the end, you could buy something for one mark.

0:15:390:15:44

That one was restituted a long time ago.

0:15:440:15:48

Having spent so many years working to restitute the Oppenheimer estate to its rightful heirs,

0:15:480:15:54

Eva has grown to know descendants Peter Bloch and Inge Blackshear as friends.

0:15:540:16:00

She is all too aware of how important

0:16:000:16:02

regaining their inheritance is to them, and to others like them.

0:16:020:16:06

I've known them since such a long time and I know how it is important.

0:16:060:16:12

Because the Jews were persecuted in Germany,

0:16:140:16:19

and persecution means everything.

0:16:190:16:23

I saw it with them in California.

0:16:230:16:26

It is very good for them.

0:16:280:16:31

They feel like having been...

0:16:310:16:34

That it is recognised, the persecution.

0:16:340:16:38

Yeah, here it is.

0:16:380:16:40

With the picture now withdrawn from the Cape Town sale and on its way back to London,

0:16:400:16:46

Eva is keen to reunite her clients with the painting taken in such terrible circumstances.

0:16:460:16:51

Whenever you steal something from somebody, you are only satisfied

0:16:510:16:56

once the thief is in prison or you get it back, your property.

0:16:560:17:01

I'm a little like a detective when I find something.

0:17:010:17:04

It's also fun...

0:17:070:17:10

to chase art, isn't it?

0:17:100:17:14

As Fiona arrives back from Cape Town on the red-eye,

0:17:150:17:20

I'll be able to get a better idea whether the painting really is,

0:17:200:17:24

without doubt, the looted picture and not a cheap modern copy.

0:17:240:17:27

-Special delivery.

-Welcome back.

0:17:310:17:34

-You've got it.

-Yes! Here it is.

0:17:340:17:38

-I'm so excited.

-I know.

0:17:380:17:40

I was terrified, carrying this on the plane.

0:17:400:17:43

I always get this rather uncertain feeling at this stage,

0:17:430:17:46

when the picture is opened in London.

0:17:460:17:48

It's come from another part of the world.

0:17:480:17:51

It always looks different somehow in the London light.

0:17:510:17:55

I'm dying to know what you make of it.

0:17:550:17:57

You can't get away from the fact that he still looks like

0:17:570:18:00

a grumpy old chap standing there,

0:18:000:18:02

but it's got a depth that I hadn't appreciated until I saw it.

0:18:020:18:05

The moment of truth approaches.

0:18:100:18:13

-Here we go.

-Are you ready?

0:18:150:18:16

Get on with it.

0:18:160:18:18

What do you think?

0:18:210:18:23

That looks interesting. I have to say I do think that it's a period work.

0:18:230:18:28

It's got that sort of gnarled intensity

0:18:280:18:30

that you associate with Rembrandt and his circle.

0:18:300:18:36

And this looks like a wonderfully-hewn piece of oak,

0:18:380:18:41

possibly Baltic oak.

0:18:410:18:44

Just the sort of thing that one would be looking for

0:18:440:18:47

for a 17th-century picture.

0:18:470:18:49

I think there's a possibility that we can find out who this is by,

0:18:490:18:54

but the real thing is, is it the picture that we think it is,

0:18:540:18:59

the Oppenheimer picture?

0:18:590:19:01

We could put some white spirit on it.

0:19:060:19:08

I don't think we'd damage the picture in so doing.

0:19:080:19:11

-White spirit takes off paint.

-Nah. Well, it can do,

0:19:110:19:15

but not old, solid varnish like this.

0:19:150:19:18

And you're going to do it for me.

0:19:180:19:20

You want me to put this white spirit on this painting,

0:19:200:19:23

follower of Rembrandt, hundreds of years old? Are you sure?

0:19:230:19:26

No, this is white spirit.

0:19:260:19:28

It's not acetone. It doesn't actually take off the varnish.

0:19:280:19:31

Go on, live dangerously.

0:19:310:19:33

-Like that?

-That's it.

-Oh!

0:19:330:19:36

Look at the drapery on that.

0:19:360:19:38

-Terrifying!

-Look at the shadow underneath the drapery,

0:19:380:19:41

how the drapery comes forward now.

0:19:410:19:43

Actually, I can see, that is amazing.

0:19:440:19:46

Isn't that better? It's a bit like water when it goes over pebbles.

0:19:460:19:50

On a dirty picture like this, you can get a hint, a taste,

0:19:500:19:54

of what it might be when it's clean.

0:19:540:19:56

'Although I wouldn't advise anyone else trying this, for a minute or two while wet,

0:19:560:20:00

'the old varnish becomes transparent, allowing the depth of the painting to shine through.'

0:20:000:20:05

We haven't got long, cos it's going to evaporate off.

0:20:050:20:08

-So you've just got to...

-Wow. Look at the difference now.

0:20:080:20:12

Look at that picture now.

0:20:120:20:15

It's like a fish coming out of the water, isn't it?

0:20:150:20:19

-Wow.

-I mean, you can see that it's a work of some quality,

0:20:190:20:22

and definitely has the feel of an early painting.

0:20:220:20:26

This painting is definitely holding a lot of secrets.

0:20:290:20:32

But so often in this world,

0:20:320:20:34

the back of a picture can tell you more than the front.

0:20:340:20:37

Well, that looks like an 18th-century wax collector's seal.

0:20:390:20:43

So that tells us, almost certainly, that this isn't a modern fake.

0:20:430:20:48

The panel looks right for the period.

0:20:480:20:51

It's been chamfered in the right way.

0:20:510:20:53

We've got the three quarters here,

0:20:530:20:56

and they make this incision into the edge,

0:20:560:20:59

so you can frame it properly.

0:20:590:21:01

There's also some writing on the frame here.

0:21:010:21:04

-This looks like a German script, doesn't it?

-Does it?

0:21:040:21:08

How can you tell?

0:21:080:21:10

-It says "lieb". "Lieben", or something.

-There've been some wonderful moments

0:21:100:21:13

when we've looked at the back of pictures.

0:21:130:21:16

Just as we begin to think we've got some missing art,

0:21:160:21:19

we work out the words and it's something like,

0:21:190:21:21

"Hang to left of door".

0:21:210:21:23

Come on, Bendor, what about this? This is what got me excited.

0:21:240:21:28

Well, this one is...

0:21:280:21:31

It's not very easily discernable at the moment.

0:21:310:21:34

If it was a whopping great big swastika, we'd know more about it.

0:21:340:21:39

It has a fascistic air about it.

0:21:390:21:41

You're right, because this little thing in the middle,

0:21:410:21:45

this little bundle of sticks tied together, is a fasces,

0:21:450:21:48

and that was what the early fascists used as a symbol.

0:21:480:21:51

That's where they get the term "fascist" from.

0:21:510:21:54

One always has that element of uncertainty before a picture arrives

0:21:550:21:59

that you've only known from digital images.

0:21:590:22:01

It's now here, we've seen it, and it's unquestionably old.

0:22:010:22:05

Just how old is something that we need to determine.

0:22:050:22:10

And it seems to have all the evidence

0:22:100:22:13

to suggest that it is the Oppenheimers' picture.

0:22:130:22:18

To me, it's covered with fingerprints,

0:22:180:22:21

we just need to read them.

0:22:210:22:23

The next place I want to go is here, the Witt Library.

0:22:310:22:34

This is the Scotland Yard of the art world

0:22:340:22:36

with images and information on over a million pictures.

0:22:360:22:41

It was here that Bendor discovered the link between our picture

0:22:410:22:45

and the Van Diemen sale. I want Fiona to see that evidence for herself.

0:22:450:22:49

Always wanted to do this.

0:22:540:22:56

Right, lead on.

0:22:570:22:59

In these files are just so many answers.

0:23:010:23:03

I mean, it's a bit like with crime scenes.

0:23:030:23:05

You have to library all the evidence,

0:23:050:23:08

library the DNA and then, using it later on, you can establish things.

0:23:080:23:12

Any picture that has been in a prominent public collection or an auction or with a dealer

0:23:120:23:18

in the last 100 years, the chances are you can find it here.

0:23:180:23:22

-Right.

-Staggering, really.

0:23:220:23:24

God, there's a lot of Rembrandt. New Testament?

0:23:240:23:27

I love the smell of it, don't you? Sort of leather and...

0:23:270:23:30

Kind of musty...

0:23:300:23:33

Self-portraits, Old Testament etchings... Oh, portraits.

0:23:330:23:36

His father and his brother.

0:23:360:23:39

Over to you.

0:23:390:23:41

This is a fantastic resource.

0:23:410:23:44

I once found a missing link here

0:23:440:23:46

that proved a lacklustre landscape was really a Gainsborough.

0:23:460:23:50

Just look how many images there are, just for the father.

0:23:500:23:54

-And they're all of his dad?

-Well, they're purported to be of his dad,

0:23:540:23:57

-but there's no evidence for that.

-Oh, I see. So it could be anybody?

0:23:570:24:01

It could be anybody, probably a studio model.

0:24:010:24:03

-That's definitely our chap, isn't it?

-This is the same guy.

-Yeah.

0:24:030:24:07

The set of the eyes, the shape of the nose, and that slightly sort of,

0:24:070:24:11

"How long am I going to have to sit for?" model look.

0:24:110:24:14

And Rembrandt would have chosen this chap to paint because he had an interesting face, a lived-in face?

0:24:140:24:20

-Yeah.

-Is that right?

-Yes, absolutely.

0:24:200:24:22

Rembrandt was always looking for

0:24:220:24:24

different types of human expression, thought and insight.

0:24:240:24:27

-If he found a good face...

-He stuck with them.

0:24:270:24:30

A good face is worth having. A lot of would-be Rembrandts.

0:24:300:24:33

I'm looking at so many that are similar, I can't remember what ours looks like any more.

0:24:330:24:38

-Oh!

-Here it is.

0:24:380:24:40

Right, OK.

0:24:400:24:42

-Talk about incriminating evidence.

-This is what Bendor saw.

0:24:420:24:46

Yes. It's one and the same thing, isn't it?

0:24:460:24:48

"Van Diemen sale, Graupe, Berlin, 26-29 April, 1935."

0:24:480:24:51

Isn't it extraordinary? Picture comes up in South Africa,

0:24:510:24:55

we here in the Witt Library in London,

0:24:550:24:57

photograph, ancient information, put it all together.

0:24:570:25:00

-It's like a trail of clues, isn't it?

-Yeah.

0:25:000:25:04

Although we know that the painting that was for sale in Cape Town

0:25:070:25:11

is definitely the Nazi painting,

0:25:110:25:13

there are still many questions to answer.

0:25:130:25:16

Hang on, because this says Rembrandt,

0:25:160:25:18

and yet the picture in Cape Town

0:25:180:25:21

is described as being by a follower of Rembrandt.

0:25:210:25:23

So how can you tell the difference?

0:25:230:25:25

You're asking an absolutely crucial question. It's the difference

0:25:250:25:28

between the master and a follower or an assistant.

0:25:280:25:31

I'll tell you what, we can go to the National Gallery.

0:25:310:25:34

There you can see some real Rembrandts.

0:25:340:25:36

Rembrandt was the greatest Dutch artist of the 17th century,

0:25:510:25:54

a time when Dutch painting was the envy of Europe.

0:25:540:25:58

But while many of his contemporaries excelled in landscapes

0:25:580:26:02

and still-lives, Rembrandt became famous as a master of the human face.

0:26:020:26:07

The National Gallery holds

0:26:070:26:09

a wonderful collection of his portraits.

0:26:090:26:11

Now, even I recognise this self-portrait.

0:26:170:26:20

Two things jump out at me. He's not flattering himself obviously, is he?

0:26:200:26:26

Also, he looks either slightly querulous or very slightly anxious.

0:26:260:26:33

I'm not quite sure which it is. But you can see that in his expression.

0:26:330:26:36

Absolutely. That's exactly what makes this a fascinating picture.

0:26:360:26:41

It's not obvious. It's not someone laughing or sad or angry.

0:26:410:26:46

It teeters on the edge, one feeling teetering into the other.

0:26:460:26:49

It's just incredibly clever.

0:26:490:26:51

You can tell a Rembrandt portrait by the superior way

0:26:530:26:56

he portrays a subject's character and emotion,

0:26:560:27:00

with nothing more than inspired brushstrokes.

0:27:000:27:03

There's no vagueness in a Rembrandt.

0:27:030:27:05

I read that Hitler was a great fan of Rembrandt's,

0:27:050:27:09

which is surprising in one sense

0:27:090:27:10

in that Rembrandt mixed with and painted a lot of Jewish people.

0:27:100:27:14

Why do you think Hitler was such a fan?

0:27:140:27:16

Because Rembrandt is the ultimate trophy.

0:27:160:27:20

I mean, Rembrandt is a by-word for artistic genius.

0:27:200:27:23

What he wanted was these bits of booty himself around him

0:27:230:27:28

as a form of aggrandisement.

0:27:280:27:30

-Take a look at this, Fiona. It's got no label on it.

-Right.

0:27:360:27:39

Tell me what you think of this.

0:27:390:27:41

What, in terms of is it a Rembrandt or not?

0:27:410:27:44

Yeah, quality. Is it a Rembrandt?

0:27:440:27:47

Oh, God. I don't know.

0:27:470:27:50

Well, OK, from what I've learned from the master...

0:27:500:27:54

I also could make a complete fool of myself now!

0:27:550:28:00

I would say it's not as fine

0:28:000:28:03

as the ones we've seen. Even though those are not photographic

0:28:030:28:06

in the way they portray the faces, they are very clear.

0:28:060:28:10

You're going to tell me this is a Rembrandt, aren't you?

0:28:100:28:13

When I'm saying it doesn't particularly look like a Rembrandt.

0:28:130:28:17

-I can reveal to you it is not a Rembrandt.

-Ooh!

0:28:170:28:20

-But it was thought to be a Rembrandt.

-Oh, right. OK.

0:28:200:28:22

It was demoted in the 1960s.

0:28:220:28:25

But it's very difficult, because you can't just say,

0:28:250:28:28

"It's got the right paint and it's from the right period

0:28:280:28:30

"and this is the sort of subject he does." There are subtle differences

0:28:300:28:34

in the quality of the handwriting, as it were.

0:28:340:28:36

If it was originally thought that this was a Rembrandt,

0:28:360:28:39

it's possible that this came from the studio of Rembrandt,

0:28:390:28:43

-from one of his pupils, is it?

-Yeah.

0:28:430:28:46

He had around him a group of people, assistants, pupils if you want,

0:28:460:28:50

people who would actually, as he worked on a picture,

0:28:500:28:53

quite often sit around and do the same model, the same object.

0:28:530:28:57

Rembrandt could do it from one angle

0:28:570:28:59

and two or three other people could do it from other angles.

0:28:590:29:02

He had a sort of industry going on.

0:29:020:29:03

-These were apprentices, effectively?

-Apprentices, pupils, yes.

0:29:030:29:07

These were people who could also supply pictures which he could sell.

0:29:070:29:10

So you could get a copy of a Rembrandt

0:29:100:29:12

or you could get an original Rembrandt.

0:29:120:29:14

With Philip eager to uncover the mysteries of our painting,

0:29:220:29:26

I want to learn more about how art was systematically looted

0:29:260:29:31

by the Nazis in the years before the Second World War.

0:29:310:29:36

As well as housing an impressive array of machines to excite the imagination of any schoolboy,

0:29:420:29:49

the Imperial War Museum holds a wealth of rare archive film

0:29:490:29:54

that documents the rise of Nazism

0:29:540:29:56

from the days before our painting was looted.

0:29:560:29:58

Archive that historian James Taylor has arranged to show me.

0:29:580:30:03

This is a crowd listening to the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels,

0:30:090:30:14

who is announcing a one-day boycott of Jewish shops throughout the country

0:30:140:30:19

and the intention was that this would stop non-Jewish people buying from Jewish shopkeepers.

0:30:190:30:25

-Gosh. And when was this?

-The end of March 1933.

0:30:250:30:28

March 31st to be specific.

0:30:280:30:30

So this is only two months since Adolf Hitler's become Chancellor.

0:30:300:30:34

-He didn't waste any time, did he?

-No, absolutely not.

0:30:340:30:37

And this is the beginning of the creeping and increasing legislation

0:30:370:30:43

against the Jews as Hitler became more powerful.

0:30:430:30:47

Yes. I mean, I think the key years are really 1935

0:30:470:30:52

when the Reich citizenship law is brought in

0:30:520:30:55

and that effectively makes Jews second-class citizens.

0:30:550:30:59

Then they turn their attention wholesale

0:30:590:31:02

to the possessions of Jews. The focus of Nazi antisemitic law

0:31:020:31:07

is to force Jews to emigrate.

0:31:070:31:08

The irony of that is that they actually put obstacles in their path,

0:31:080:31:12

one of which was that they weren't allowed to take their assets with them.

0:31:120:31:16

So they insisted that all Jewish artworks,

0:31:160:31:21

shares and bonds be declared. It was either taken forcibly

0:31:210:31:25

or, after the Jews were deported, then the property was taken.

0:31:250:31:31

Not all Jews were as wealthy as Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer,

0:31:340:31:37

with the funds to buy expensive paintings,

0:31:370:31:41

but it's estimated that, by the end of the war,

0:31:410:31:44

one third of all the world's art treasures had been looted by the Nazis.

0:31:440:31:48

Paintings by Da Vinci, Raphael and others adorned the walls of the Nazi leaders.

0:31:480:31:53

When it came to art, were there Nazis who were particularly interested in it per se?

0:31:530:31:59

Well, Goering, most famously,

0:31:590:32:02

is the person who was interested in art. Hitler, of course...

0:32:020:32:05

-Was a watercolourist.

-That's right.

0:32:050:32:07

And he wanted to establish certainly a kind of Fuhrer museum.

0:32:070:32:11

But it's also worth pointing out

0:32:110:32:13

that they were very particular about the type of art that they wanted.

0:32:130:32:17

Anything that they considered degenerate -

0:32:170:32:19

which was, generally speaking modernist art - was destroyed.

0:32:190:32:23

I think it's fascinating and horrifying in equal measure

0:32:290:32:33

to see quite how systematically the Nazis stripped away

0:32:330:32:36

everything from the Jews that made them human, really.

0:32:360:32:39

I hadn't realised the Nazis were so keen to force the Jews to emigrate.

0:32:390:32:43

I didn't realise that was part of their master plan.

0:32:430:32:46

Of course, the Oppenheimers in '33 left Germany, they did emigrate.

0:32:460:32:50

They had to leave everything behind, including their painting.

0:32:500:32:54

A painting Bendor has news of back at base.

0:32:540:32:58

Well, Anne Webber from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe has been in touch.

0:32:580:33:02

She and her team have made the most fantastic discovery.

0:33:020:33:05

Our picture was listed by the Nazis in 1934

0:33:050:33:09

as a work of national treasure,

0:33:090:33:11

which meant that it couldn't be exported from the country

0:33:110:33:14

and Anne and her team have kindly sent us a copy of the list from a few years later in 1938.

0:33:140:33:20

Here it is. It's the second picture down, artist Rembrandt on the left

0:33:200:33:25

and then "Bildnis seines Vaters in Pantasietracht".

0:33:250:33:28

It means, basically, portrait of the father in fancy dress.

0:33:280:33:31

And you can see all these pictures are by Rembrandt van Rijn.

0:33:310:33:36

And this is extraordinary.

0:33:360:33:38

I'm just trying to keep up with what this means.

0:33:380:33:40

-They thought it was a Rembrandt...

-Indeed, yes.

-..and as a Rembrandt,

0:33:400:33:44

was of national importance to the heritage...

0:33:440:33:46

This puts a whole different historical slant on it.

0:33:460:33:49

It moves from albeit an important old master picture to a national treasure.

0:33:490:33:55

I mean, whatever the picture is, whatever we catalogue it as now,

0:33:550:33:59

whoever painted this, this was, in its day, something of supreme importance.

0:33:590:34:03

Obviously in their day, they were pretty convinced it was by Rembrandt,

0:34:030:34:06

otherwise they wouldn't have catalogued it as a national treasure, I assume.

0:34:060:34:10

-Yes.

-So we really do need to find out who it's by.

0:34:100:34:13

If we can find out who painted our picture,

0:34:160:34:18

then we can also get closer to a fair valuation for its owners.

0:34:180:34:23

So I've come to Amsterdam where Rembrandt lived from 1639 onwards.

0:34:230:34:29

So why am I here in Amsterdam?

0:34:310:34:33

I'm here to see probably the greatest Rembrandt connoisseur of our times, Ernst Van de Wetering.

0:34:330:34:38

As chairman of the Rembrandt Research Project, he knows more about Rembrandt than anybody else alive.

0:34:380:34:44

If he says your unknown 17th-century canvas is by Rembrandt,

0:34:440:34:48

it could be worth £25 million, let's say.

0:34:480:34:51

If not, just a few thousand dollars.

0:34:510:34:54

This man's got the power of a Roman emperor.

0:34:540:34:57

So, here it is.

0:35:040:35:05

'Ernst has so much knowledge and experience, he may well be able to give an instant opinion.'

0:35:050:35:12

The first response is that it is...

0:35:210:35:23

..a 17th-century painting.

0:35:250:35:28

But the question is, is the painting made by Rembrandt?

0:35:280:35:32

The answer is no, because it's not signed.

0:35:320:35:37

-It's as simple as that, is it?

-It is very simple.

0:35:370:35:40

The technique is similar, very similar. Judging from the technique,

0:35:400:35:46

it must have been done in his studio

0:35:460:35:49

and he must have seen it, this painting.

0:35:490:35:53

Each studio had its own paint recipes.

0:35:530:35:57

I wouldn't say there were buckets of paint where they picked paint from,

0:35:570:36:01

but in his Rembrandt school, they used the same matter

0:36:010:36:06

and the behaviour of the matter was comparable.

0:36:060:36:09

Some of it flows easily,

0:36:090:36:11

other paint drags over the surface and behaves in a specific way.

0:36:110:36:17

So what I see here, you could also see on a Rembrandt.

0:36:170:36:21

'So the painting is not by Rembrandt, but it's definitely connected to the great man.

0:36:220:36:28

'With the help of Ernst and the team he works with, we can still find out who painted this picture.

0:36:280:36:33

'Applying state-of-the-art techniques, step by step,

0:36:350:36:38

'they can delve deeper and deeper into the creation of our painting.'

0:36:380:36:43

I think it's best we start with the head and from there we can orient ourselves more easily.

0:36:430:36:48

'An infrared camera will allow us

0:36:480:36:50

'to look beneath the surface of the painting

0:36:500:36:53

'and see the artist's preparation, known as the reserve.'

0:36:530:36:57

There is...around the feather,

0:36:590:37:03

you see the shape

0:37:030:37:05

making a reserve for a wider feather than you see now on the painting.

0:37:050:37:09

This is most probably a change in the conception of the painting.

0:37:090:37:13

-That's thrilling. Like a poet missing a line and then adding one.

-Yes, yes.

0:37:130:37:19

But look at this hat. I mean, this hat was once enormous.

0:37:190:37:22

Look at the edge there.

0:37:220:37:23

It looks like one of those great big, floppy Rembrandt hats.

0:37:230:37:27

Yeah, it could be.

0:37:270:37:29

Or, I mean, the turban.

0:37:300:37:33

You would expect a turban, but he gets a very small cap.

0:37:330:37:39

But it may have been a different shape originally.

0:37:390:37:42

So what we're seeing is an artist trying to find an artistic solution.

0:37:420:37:48

-Yes.

-In other words, an original painting and not a copy.

0:37:480:37:52

Yes, we can be sure about that.

0:37:520:37:54

'Already, our picture is revealing its past.

0:37:540:37:58

'It shows an artist changing his mind whilst painting.

0:37:580:38:01

'So it's an original work.

0:38:010:38:03

'A copy would not have these tell-tale signs beneath the surface.

0:38:030:38:06

'But we need more investigation to find out who it's actually by.

0:38:060:38:11

'So it's now in the expert hands of Martin Bijl

0:38:110:38:16

'who's a restorer extraordinaire.

0:38:160:38:18

'I'm intrigued by a series of faint marks at the bottom of the picture.

0:38:180:38:23

'Could it be a signature? His trained eye might just be able to find it.

0:38:230:38:26

'If it exists, it could reveal what we're eager to know.'

0:38:260:38:30

Now, Martin, I've got to ask you,

0:38:320:38:34

can you make out anything in the bottom left-hand corner?

0:38:340:38:38

Is there a possible signature?

0:38:380:38:42

I've just had a first look at it

0:38:420:38:45

and it ends with a date - 1639 or 1635.

0:38:450:38:52

But then before this date, something is written

0:38:520:38:56

and that's partly over-painted.

0:38:560:39:00

-Mm-hmm.

-That suggests that somebody painted over the signature

0:39:000:39:05

without knowing what he did.

0:39:050:39:08

He didn't even paint over everything because...

0:39:080:39:11

..one or two centimetres before,

0:39:120:39:15

there is also the remains of a signature which is not retouched.

0:39:150:39:19

So there is more,

0:39:190:39:22

and I think we only can confirm by looking through a microscope

0:39:220:39:25

because the over-paintings are too thick and too opaque.

0:39:250:39:29

It's a bit of a muddle, isn't it?

0:39:300:39:32

Yeah.

0:39:320:39:34

That's why restorers like to clean this kind of picture

0:39:340:39:38

because we want to reveal these problems.

0:39:380:39:41

'The Amsterdam experts will continue their investigations,

0:39:410:39:44

'confident that we can put a name to its creator.'

0:39:440:39:48

This compelling, and it is compelling, process of attribution

0:39:530:39:57

that's going on all around me is central to our world.

0:39:570:40:01

It's a bit like a religious ritual, by which the painting gets anointed.

0:40:010:40:06

It's only by knowing when something was painted

0:40:060:40:10

or, best of all, who painted it,

0:40:100:40:12

that art historians have got something to grab onto, to hold onto.

0:40:120:40:16

People who buy pictures will take out cheques and sign them when they've got that.

0:40:160:40:21

It's riveting. The picture itself hasn't changed physically at all.

0:40:210:40:26

But already it's growing in stature

0:40:260:40:28

from the follower of Rembrandt that was at auction for just £1,000.

0:40:280:40:32

With the painting yielding more and more secrets to Philip,

0:40:410:40:44

I'm keen to uncover just how far Nazi looting spread.

0:40:440:40:48

When Europe was liberated after the war,

0:40:490:40:52

Goering's personal stash of looted art was discovered.

0:40:520:40:55

A multi-million-pound haul that read like a Who's Who of the greats of the art world.

0:40:550:41:00

But we've barely found the tip of the iceberg.

0:41:000:41:04

So much was stolen that it's estimated that art worth up to £20 billion remains missing.

0:41:040:41:10

And the Nazis stole art not just from the Jews

0:41:100:41:13

but from anyone they considered to be an enemy of the state.

0:41:130:41:17

Adam Zamoyski is trying to locate items taken from his Polish grandmother's art gallery.

0:41:170:41:22

He wants to recover them to create a public museum for Poland to be proud of.

0:41:220:41:27

The Nazis behaved completely differently in Poland

0:41:270:41:30

to the way they behaved anywhere else -

0:41:300:41:32

in Belgium or France or anywhere else.

0:41:320:41:35

They were determined to destroy the Polish upper classes and intelligentsia anyway,

0:41:350:41:42

but they also confiscated everything.

0:41:420:41:45

All Polish property was simply liable to confiscation.

0:41:450:41:49

So the Germans started sending these things to different places

0:41:490:41:53

because they had their great plans for the Fuhrer's museum in Linz

0:41:530:41:57

and then Goering took a few

0:41:570:41:59

and the frightful governor of Poland, Hans Frank,

0:41:590:42:03

had in his bedroom that Raphael.

0:42:030:42:04

-So this was in your family museum?

-That's right.

-And the Nazis took it?

0:42:040:42:08

Yes. It's thought to be a self-portrait by Raphael and disappeared without trace.

0:42:080:42:14

-And this is all you've got? A black and white image?

-Exactly.

0:42:140:42:18

-And you've no idea where it is?

-No.

0:42:180:42:20

Every single lead has been chased up.

0:42:200:42:22

It's probably the most valuable looted object still out there from the Second World War.

0:42:220:42:27

Of all of them. Really?

0:42:270:42:30

So several millions, I imagine.

0:42:300:42:32

Oh, hundreds of millions.

0:42:320:42:34

I mean, you know, there wouldn't be a museum in the western world

0:42:340:42:38

that wouldn't do anything to get hold of it.

0:42:380:42:42

Bite your arm off to have it.

0:42:420:42:44

I see it as a personal duty to try and reconstitute these collections

0:42:440:42:49

and to make them available because it was put together by ancestors

0:42:490:42:53

whom I actually rather admire and who I'm, sort of, quite fond of.

0:42:530:42:59

But, also, I see it almost as a moral duty to the people of Poland.

0:42:590:43:05

'In Amsterdam, I'm hoping that pigment expert Karin Groen

0:43:090:43:12

'will be able to get closer to an attribution.

0:43:120:43:16

'Is that a signature in the bottom left-hand corner?

0:43:160:43:19

'Under her microscopic scrutiny, a dark secret begins to emerge.'

0:43:190:43:25

I started with these larger retouchings

0:43:250:43:29

in what could be a signature,

0:43:290:43:32

but then when we move on, one can see that also what...

0:43:320:43:37

..could be numbers...

0:43:380:43:41

The 6 was mentioned and a 3.

0:43:410:43:43

Yes, I've always assumed that was the date.

0:43:430:43:46

Yeah, but they seem to have been made in paint used for retouching.

0:43:460:43:50

So later, I think.

0:43:500:43:52

Ah. So you're telling me that your microscope tells you

0:43:520:43:56

-that the whole signature is added, the whole date, everything?

-Yeah.

0:43:560:44:00

That sounds like a rather clear conclusion then, doesn't it?

0:44:000:44:04

-Bit disappointing.

-I'd love to have a look down the lens myself.

0:44:040:44:07

-I don't disbelieve you for a moment.

-It's bang in the middle here.

0:44:070:44:12

Oh, crikey, I see what you mean.

0:44:140:44:16

I've seen this so many times before

0:44:160:44:19

but not quite as graphically as this.

0:44:190:44:21

-There's a sort of smeary, dishonest layer above, isn't there?

-Yeah.

0:44:210:44:26

Above what?

0:44:260:44:28

The paint looks really different.

0:44:280:44:30

-Really different.

-Kind of smeary.

0:44:300:44:32

And then as I pass it along...

0:44:320:44:35

to where the date is, the date is the same smeary paint.

0:44:350:44:39

-Mm.

-There's so signature here at all, is there, really?

0:44:420:44:45

-Well, no evidence of one.

-No.

0:44:450:44:47

So any hopes of identifying the painting by signature have foundered.

0:44:470:44:53

It was added later, maybe in the 19th century,

0:44:530:44:56

possibly in an effort to pass it off as a Rembrandt.

0:44:560:44:59

It is great that we're finding out more and more about the painting now

0:45:060:45:10

but my research has thrown up a disturbing new revelation

0:45:100:45:14

which is there is a second claim on this picture now.

0:45:140:45:19

We knew already the Oppenheimers.

0:45:190:45:21

They ran the Van Diemen Gallery, it was liquidated by the Nazis.

0:45:210:45:25

But the painting then passed to a bank

0:45:250:45:27

as part repayment of a loan that had been made earlier to the Oppenheimers.

0:45:270:45:32

Now that bank was Jewish and its assets were then seized by the Nazis

0:45:320:45:38

and among those assets was our painting.

0:45:380:45:42

That bank no longer exists,

0:45:420:45:44

but its heirs are saying that they too now have a claim on our picture.

0:45:440:45:49

It's a very confusing situation.

0:45:490:45:53

Who owns this picture? And how commonly do situations like this occur with claim and counter-claim?

0:45:530:45:59

I've called in Anne Webber from the Looted Art Commission.

0:45:590:46:02

If a painting belonged to an art dealer,

0:46:040:46:06

the art dealers in Germany were put under enormous pressure by the Nazis once they came to power.

0:46:060:46:11

Really, by 1935, Jewish art dealers weren't allowed to practise in Germany.

0:46:110:46:17

So you might have a situation where an art dealer took out a loan from a bank

0:46:170:46:23

and then the collateral for that loan might have been works of art

0:46:230:46:28

and then the loan is called in because of the art dealer being put under so much pressure.

0:46:280:46:33

The loan is called in so the art works go to the bank.

0:46:330:46:36

The bank itself may have been Jewish-owned

0:46:360:46:38

and then subsequently that bank may have been seized by the Nazis or liquidated or Aryanised, taken over,

0:46:380:46:44

and that painting at that point belonged to the bank and it was then seized from them.

0:46:440:46:49

In over 60-70 years, it might be lost in the mists of time who is the rightful owner.

0:46:490:46:56

Because there were so many waves of dispossession by the Nazis,

0:46:560:47:00

you really have to unpick all that

0:47:000:47:02

and unravel all these different discriminatory measures that were taken

0:47:020:47:06

to try and understand who exactly was the owner of the painting.

0:47:060:47:09

So yes, you could have a situation where two different people

0:47:090:47:13

believe themselves to be the owner, for good reason.

0:47:130:47:17

Back in Amsterdam, we're reaching the final stages of our forensic research

0:47:210:47:25

and the last step is often the most revealing.

0:47:250:47:28

An X-ray image of our painting shows the artist's original sketch.

0:47:280:47:31

The contrast between his first sketch and the finished painting

0:47:310:47:37

may take us closer to understanding just who that artist was.

0:47:370:47:42

The technique is very similar to what we know from Rembrandt, except that Rembrandt was more outspoken.

0:47:420:47:47

You see the contrast, much stronger.

0:47:470:47:50

This is painted rather meek. It's very carefully done.

0:47:500:47:55

A sort of cowardly Rembrandt,

0:47:550:47:56

-but someone who knows Rembrandt nonetheless.

-Yes, yes.

0:47:560:48:00

I wouldn't say coward, but insecure.

0:48:000:48:03

A young boy of, we'll say, 17 or 18 years who works in his style.

0:48:030:48:08

Sounds as though you're homing in.

0:48:080:48:09

Yes.

0:48:090:48:11

'The team have completed their studies.

0:48:130:48:15

'Now it's up to Ernst to try and pull it all together

0:48:150:48:18

'and tell us just who this painting is by.'

0:48:180:48:22

My personal opinion is that the painting is very close to Isaac De Jouderville.

0:48:260:48:32

Isaac De Jouderville, the pupil of...

0:48:320:48:35

Isaac De Jouderville was a pupil of Rembrandt's

0:48:350:48:38

from, say, already 1627, '28, '29.

0:48:380:48:43

One should always be careful here.

0:48:460:48:50

The name of Jouderville may cover two or three young men. I mean...

0:48:500:48:56

..the pupils of Rembrandt do not have a very...

0:48:580:49:02

..stamped style of their own, er,

0:49:030:49:06

and so there may be different individuals

0:49:060:49:10

which we have made into one individual

0:49:100:49:14

because there is enough connection from one painting to the other

0:49:140:49:18

and so we call them Jouderville.

0:49:180:49:21

Once we focus in on the master,

0:49:210:49:23

what is not by him

0:49:230:49:26

is treated less exact as Rembrandt himself.

0:49:260:49:31

So, when I say it's Jouderville, it comes close to a number of paintings

0:49:310:49:37

which we attribute, at this moment, to Jouderville.

0:49:370:49:41

We have a result. The committee has decided.

0:49:490:49:52

Not only have we established that this is now one and the same picture

0:49:520:49:57

that was spoliated or force-sold by the Nazis in the 1930s,

0:49:570:50:01

but we now have a firm attribution.

0:50:010:50:03

A picture that was formerly called "follower of Rembrandt", which frankly means nothing,

0:50:030:50:09

is now by Isaac De Jouderville, the orphan pupil of Rembrandt himself.

0:50:090:50:14

It's now from his time by a firm name.

0:50:140:50:18

The emperor has spoken.

0:50:180:50:21

With our attribution work finished, we'll have to return the painting to Rudd's auction house in Cape Town.

0:50:250:50:30

But first it's back to London to tell the others the news.

0:50:300:50:34

With this new information, I reckon the painting,

0:50:340:50:37

which we found for sale for just £1,000,

0:50:370:50:40

is now worth closer to 20,000. But who was Isaac De Jouderville?

0:50:400:50:44

Well, he's probably best known

0:50:440:50:46

for being one of Rembrandt's very first pupils

0:50:460:50:49

and, in fact, I've got a painting here

0:50:490:50:51

which is thought to be one of his early self-portraits.

0:50:510:50:55

He joined Rembrandt's studio as an apprentice

0:50:550:50:59

when he was about 16 years old in 1629.

0:50:590:51:02

For that privilege, he would have had to pay Rembrandt about 100 Dutch guilders every year.

0:51:020:51:08

We know all this information because De Jouderville was an orphan

0:51:080:51:11

and we have copies of the receipts between Rembrandt and De Jouderville's guardians.

0:51:110:51:15

As an apprentice,

0:51:150:51:16

he would have been in the studio doing everything from mixing paints

0:51:160:51:20

to learning how to paint and draw.

0:51:200:51:22

-And clearly not paying a lot of attention to his hair.

-No!

0:51:220:51:25

He was pretty cool for the 1630s, I think.

0:51:250:51:28

In the studio, the way you learned your trade was effectively by making copies of the master's work.

0:51:280:51:34

This is thought to be by Jouderville, and here the Rembrandt which De Jouderville copied.

0:51:340:51:39

And the sharp-eyed of you will notice that there's no dog

0:51:390:51:42

-in De Jouderville's picture because...

-Did you notice that?

0:51:420:51:45

I think even I might have spotted that.

0:51:450:51:49

Rembrandt added his later, after De Jouderville made the copy.

0:51:490:51:53

I hope you're also seeing that the pose in this copy by Jouderville

0:51:530:51:57

is exactly the same as that of our picture.

0:51:570:52:01

Oh, yes. So it is, yes.

0:52:010:52:03

So what we've got here is not only

0:52:030:52:05

an important discovery of a new picture by De Jouderville,

0:52:050:52:09

but a fascinating piece of evidence as to how Rembrandt's studio system worked.

0:52:090:52:15

You can imagine De Jouderville in the studio

0:52:150:52:17

and when Rembrandt is using this model for his own paintings,

0:52:170:52:20

De Jouderville's in the corner, doing his own pictures himself.

0:52:200:52:23

So that would affect the value of our painting?

0:52:230:52:26

Most certainly. An attribution is very important.

0:52:260:52:29

It's like waving a magic wand over a picture.

0:52:290:52:32

-It turns from the anonymous to the identifiable.

-It's all very exciting,

0:52:320:52:37

but I have to throw a bit of a spanner in the works because there is a counter-claim to this painting.

0:52:370:52:42

A Jewish family who owned a bank at the time of the Second World War,

0:52:420:52:48

they lent money to the Oppenheimer family back in the '30s,

0:52:480:52:52

and they are now claiming this painting, among others,

0:52:520:52:56

-as collateral for that loan, all that time ago.

-How extraordinary.

0:52:560:53:00

This is getting more and more complicated.

0:53:000:53:02

Mind you, the whole thing might be academic.

0:53:020:53:04

The owner might not be prepared to relinquish hold of the picture. He might want to hang on to it.

0:53:040:53:09

-In which case no-one else can have it.

-In which case no-one can.

0:53:090:53:12

But we've got to go back to Cape Town, to return the picture.

0:53:120:53:15

-I've spoken to the owner, Peter Schaary.

-Oh, right?

-And he's agreed to meet us.

0:53:150:53:19

So why not, at that meeting, try and establish what he has in mind?

0:53:190:53:23

Whatever Mr Schaary decides,

0:53:230:53:25

the new claim is likely to prolong the ownership dispute.

0:53:250:53:29

So it's back to Cape Town to return the painting to the auction house

0:53:290:53:33

and a chance for us to meet the mysterious Mr Schaary.

0:53:330:53:37

Beautiful, sunny Cape Town. Have you been to Cape Town before, Philip?

0:53:370:53:41

I haven't. I must say, I absolutely adore it.

0:53:410:53:44

And just over there...

0:53:440:53:46

is where our whole story began, in Rudd's Auctioneers.

0:53:460:53:51

What a journey that painting's been on.

0:53:510:53:54

We're meeting Peter Schaary who owns this painting. What's he like?

0:53:540:53:57

I had a brief chat with him on the phone from Namibia. He sounds like a very reasonable guy.

0:53:570:54:02

I'm wondering, you know, given that this painting was sold in the Van Diemen sale,

0:54:020:54:08

are there Nazi antecedents in his past, in his family? Is that how he got hold of the painting?

0:54:080:54:13

-I'm fascinated by all that.

-You can ask him that!

0:54:130:54:16

What, you don't want to? I don't mind. I'll ask him.

0:54:160:54:19

-Shall we go?

-Let's go.

0:54:190:54:20

'We've already sent Mr Schaary news of what we've been able to find out

0:54:230:54:27

'about the painting's place in art history.

0:54:270:54:30

'So what can he tell us about the man who owned it, his grandfather?'

0:54:300:54:35

-Hello, Mr Schaary.

-Hello.

0:54:350:54:37

-Fiona Bruce, very nice to meet you. Hello there.

-Hi, Philip Mould.

0:54:370:54:40

Very nice to meet you, having spoken to you on the phone.

0:54:400:54:43

-Yes. Thank you very much for coming.

-A huge pleasure.

0:54:430:54:47

'My grandfather was in Berlin in the '20s and '30s. He was a lawyer.

0:54:470:54:52

'He was a very influential man.'

0:54:520:54:54

If your grandfather was a lawyer before the war,

0:54:540:54:57

what did he do during the war?

0:54:570:54:59

I remember he had a uniform, but he was not in the war.

0:54:590:55:02

Was your grandfather a Nazi? That's what I'm getting at.

0:55:020:55:06

No. My grandfather...

0:55:060:55:07

I would say no because, like I said, he was a businessman.

0:55:090:55:14

He was lucky in business and in private, I think.

0:55:140:55:19

He had enough funds...

0:55:190:55:22

in his life to...

0:55:220:55:23

..put up pictures in his house in Johannesburg

0:55:260:55:30

when I was, my goodness, I was 13 going on 14.

0:55:300:55:36

There was a Frans Hals and there was a Vermeer.

0:55:360:55:39

A Frans Hals and a Vermeer?

0:55:390:55:41

-Yes.

-Owned by your grandfather?

-Yes.

0:55:410:55:44

We traced this picture back - which is what piqued our interest -

0:55:440:55:47

back to 1935, the Van Diemen sale, which of course was a sale

0:55:470:55:51

of much art that had been kind of appropriated from Jewish families.

0:55:510:55:56

-Yes, yes.

-So did your grandfather not buy it from that sale?

-No, no.

0:55:560:56:00

My grandfather surely couldn't have bought it,

0:56:000:56:04

knowingly, that it was somebody else's, you know.

0:56:040:56:09

For that he had too high standing.

0:56:090:56:11

He couldn't do that for himself and he wouldn't have done it

0:56:110:56:16

because he was a very generous person all his life.

0:56:160:56:19

I suppose the question now is what are you going to do with it?

0:56:190:56:23

Would it give you a feeling of satisfaction

0:56:230:56:26

to see the picture returned in some way to its rightful owners?

0:56:260:56:30

Oh, 100%. I have no problem with that.

0:56:300:56:32

I inherited them. I didn't buy it.

0:56:320:56:35

I was given it as part of the inheritance of my mother.

0:56:350:56:39

I had the benefit of looking at it, enjoying it.

0:56:390:56:42

If it belongs to somebody else, that person should have it, you know.

0:56:420:56:46

So even though the painting is worth £20,000,

0:56:470:56:51

20 times more than he thought, Mr Schaary is still willing to give it up.

0:56:510:56:56

That's what we've been hoping for since the day we stopped the auction.

0:56:560:57:01

We've come a long way since then.

0:57:010:57:04

But sadly the chaos left by the Nazis has foiled our attempts

0:57:040:57:07

to return the painting to its rightful owner for now.

0:57:070:57:10

Until an agreement can be reached, this painting, like so many others

0:57:100:57:14

that were taken in terrible circumstances, will remain locked in limbo.

0:57:140:57:19

The thing is, when this all started, it was an unwanted portrait,

0:57:210:57:26

for sale at a knockdown price.

0:57:260:57:28

I mean, we've come a long way since then.

0:57:280:57:30

We've worked out the story of the gallery owners, the picture's dark Nazi past.

0:57:300:57:36

And, of course, who painted it.

0:57:360:57:38

Isaac De Jouderville - pupil of one of the greatest artists the world has ever seen.

0:57:380:57:44

Now it can claim to be within the wider world of Rembrandt.

0:57:440:57:48

And actually it's a 300-year-old witness to the great man himself.

0:57:480:57:55

It can live and breathe again.

0:57:550:57:57

In this series we've looked beyond pictures, into their hidden secrets.

0:58:000:58:05

That is very exciting.

0:58:050:58:07

We've found paintings that have a past, sometimes thrilling.

0:58:070:58:10

We've been looking at him all the time.

0:58:100:58:13

That was with the painting?

0:58:130:58:15

Sometimes dark.

0:58:150:58:16

All art tells a story and it's through these stories that paintings come to life.

0:58:160:58:24

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:470:58:50

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:500:58:53

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS