Rembrandt self-portrait returns to German city 80 years after it was illegally removed

A youthful Rembrandt self-portrait illegally removed from Gotha in 1946 will return temporarily on loan from Munich’s Alte Pinakothek for an exhibition at the Herzogliches Museum (Ducal Museum) in Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha. The painting, Youthful Self-portrait (1629), will be shown in Rembrandt 1632: The Creation of a Brand (5 September–6 December), an exhibition that includes 11 Rembrandt paintings and examines the period when the artist began signing works with “Rembrandt” rather than initials. The work was acquired by Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg by 1803 and displayed in Gotha from 1842, then moved during World War II for safekeeping and returned in 1945 before being secretly smuggled to Coburg in January–February 1946 amid fears of Soviet trophy brigades. In 1954, the ducal family sold it to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen for DM75,000 (about $18,000), after which it entered Munich’s Alte Pinakothek, fueling a long-running dispute between Gotha and Munich institutions over its removal and ownership.

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