Dutch museum makes ‘needle in a haystack’ confirmation of Rembrandt painting

The painting has not been on public display for decades, after being bought by a private collector in 1961, a year after it was deemed not to be a Rembrandt, the museum said in a statement

Director Taco Dibbits of the Rijksmuseum unveiled the work Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (Peter Dejong/AP)

A painting that was once rejected as a work by Rembrandt van Rijn has now been acknowledged as a work by the Dutch master, thanks to two years of scrutiny in the city where the then-27-year-old artist painted it in 1633, a museum said on Monday.

The Netherlands’ national art and history museum, the Rijksmuseum, unveiled the work Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, and said painstaking analysis including high-tech scans has confirmed it was painted by Rembrandt after he moved to the capital, Amsterdam.