Alongside Rare Botticelli, Sotheby’s to Auction $20 M. Rembrandt

ARTNEWS 

By Angelica Villa

Rembrandt van Rijn, Abraham and the Angels, 1646. SOTHEBY'S

Sotheby’s recent announcement of plans to auction a rare $80 million Botticelli portrait in 2021 has put a new spotlight on the Old Masters category. Now, the auction house has unveiled a biblical scene by Rembrandt titled Abraham and the Angels (1646), to be sold alongside the Italian renaissance work in January during the house’s Masters Week evening sale. The painting is estimated to sell for $20 million–$30 million. The small-scale work, measuring at only 6 ¼ inches by 8 ¼ inches and dated 1646, is one of five biblical scenes by the artist still held privately. Made during the artist’s prime, the work depicts a scene from the book of Genesis in which three angels posing as travelers visit the elderly couple Sarah and Abraham to deliver a divine message that Sarah will give birth to a son. [More]